


Pasiphae

by Vadianna



Series: Pasiphae-verse [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Awkward Virgin Kylo Ren, M/M, Masturbation, Speciesism, Voyeurism, Xenophilia, xenophilia - freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-03
Updated: 2016-08-01
Packaged: 2018-07-19 19:35:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 46,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7374670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vadianna/pseuds/Vadianna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While depressed one night, Kylo Ren decides to jerk out his sorrows to his favorite holoporn vids, starring Major Fuxx and his parade of alien partners.  Major Fuxx bears a striking resemblance to General Hux, which is part of the appeal, but he suddenly realizes that they may have more in common than their looks...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this tumblr thread](https://vadianna.tumblr.com/post/145334768801/i-like-the-implication-that-hux-is-a-connoisseur), courtesy of [@cosleia](http://cosleia.tumblr.com), [@kdazrael](http://kdazrael.tumblr.com), and [@kylostahp](http://kylostahp.tumblr.com). [Divided Desire](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7235881/chapters/16426930) by kdazrael came from the same thread. It was a good thread.
> 
> Warnings for This Chapter: There's a scene where Fuxx takes something up his ass without lube. Fuxx takes a lot in stride with his various partners, and is also a professional. I assume he knows what he's doing.

_“I endeavored to renounce society, that I might avoid temptation.  But it was a poor religion;_  
_so far as it prevailed, only tended to make me gloomy, stupid, unsociable, and useless.”_  
― John Newton

 

 

Kylo Ren, Master of the Knights of Ren, closed the door to his quarters behind him.  Inside his own rooms, he allowed himself to collapse.  He slumped against the door, tore his helmet and mask off, discarded them on the floor, and covered his face with his hands.  
  
He'd had to execute one of the Knights today.    
  
The Knight had been steadily losing control, going too far to the Dark Side, and despite the efforts of Kylo and the other Knights to anchor him in sanity, he had broken.  Kylo had been delaying the execution for days after the others had begun insisting on it, telling them that the rogue Knight would come back to himself when there was purpose, the next time they were sent on a mission.  The next mission was three days away, but Kylo had been called to the shuttle bay this morning when the rogue Knight had begun slaughtering the crew of the _Finalizer_ in an attempt to take a shuttle and escape.  Purpose unknown, of course.  Kylo had lost the ability to see into the Knight's mind a month ago, and it had been a gross dereliction of duty not to execute him then.  But he had made up for it this morning.  The other Knights had gathered to witness the end of a Former Brother, and Kylo had executed him in full view of the Knights and the terrified crew of the _Finalizer_.  And then he had turned, departed, and went about the training for the day as if nothing had happened.  
  
Kylo had never had to execute one of the Knights before, but he had seen the former Master do it once, when he had first joined the group.  It had been terrible then, and the other Knights had felt his anxiety and comforted him, thinking it was because he was young, and new, and didn't know their ways.  
  
Now, he hid his tearing sense of loss and depression from them, because he hadn't felt it from the former Master, and he didn't want them to think less of him.  But the Knights of Ren were the only family he had.  He would do anything for them, and the reason he hadn't executed the Rogue as soon as he was sure the Rogue was out of alignment was because he couldn't bring himself to.  He loved them in a way that stayed his hand.  His love for them felt right and proper, to him, as their leader, but it was another thing he kept from them, didn't let them see in his mind, because none of the others felt the same way he did.  
  
The harder truth, the one that Kylo didn't let himself think about often, was that the other Knights also had lives outside the Order.  They took leave planetside.  They were friends with one another, social.  They had planets with contacts they liked to visit.  Lovers.  Hobbies.  Kylo had none of these things.  He had his devotion to the Force, and to the Order.  
  
The Knights had tried to include him at first, invite him out with them.  But when he pictured himself with the Knights outside the structure of the Order, his mask and helmet off in front of other people, laughing, smiling talking... he didn't see Kylo Ren.  He saw someone different.  A weak person, who needed such things.  He saw Ben, and Ben was dead.  
  
Kylo Ren needed only the Order, and the Force.  Kylo Ren did not grieve.  Kylo Ren did not have anyone to share his grief with.  
  
Kylo Ren was horribly lonely, sometimes.  
  
After allowing himself to wallow for several minutes, he straightened, running one hand through his hair, still matted and damp with sweat from the earlier training session.  He blinked into the darkness of his quarters, commanding the lights up to forty percent.    
  
He should meditate, as he usually did in the evening.  Part of what happened today was likely due to the fact he didn't have a comprehensive mastery of the Dark Side himself.  If he had plumbed the depths the way that Knight had, perhaps Kylo could have guided him out of his madness.  It was his fault the Knight had been lost, and he should use his grief, his anger, and his frustration as a tether to explore the Dark.  The further he went, the more comfortable he became, the less chance there was that he'd have to execute another Knight like that.  He never wanted to do it again.  
  
But meditating in his current frame of mind was unwise.  His feelings had brought him close to the Light, and it was dangerous to venture out into deep contemplation of the Force in this state.  
  
His eyes drifted from his meditation chamber over to his holovid screen, and he heaved a broken sigh.  If he was feeling particularly unlike Kylo Ren, if he was succumbing to his base human emotion, he may as well purge himself of it and get a good night's sleep.  Perhaps he would feel more centered when he woke up, and be in a good place to meditate then.  
  
He grabbed the control for the holovid screen, collapsing into the overstuffed chair he had stolen from the Officer's Lounge.  It smelled like cigarettes and stale whiskey, and he closed his eyes for a moment and enveloped himself in the scents, in the illusion that these were things he could let himself have, that he was human and prone to Want, the same as any other being in the galaxy.  For the next twenty minutes or so, it would be true.  
  
When he felt sorry enough for himself, he opened his eyes and scrolled through the list of holovids with the remote.  He had around twenty downloaded to his set.  He debated with himself whether to browse the net and snag something new, or whether he should watch something he already had.  But he was mostly just stretching the experience out.  He knew his choices were one of three vids, the only ones that would do when he was this depressed.  
  
He only used his holovid screen for one thing, and he did it more than he liked to admit, even to himself.  Especially to himself.  The list of videos on it were all holoporn, and all from a series he had discovered accidentally one night, while looking for something to get off to.    
  
His sexual awakening had occurred around the same time as his awakening to the Dark Side, a fact he had often looked back on with bitter regret.  Ben Solo, weak and human as he was, was the famous son of the Heroes of the Rebellion, and could have easily gotten laid.  Kylo Ren was an ascetic, and such pleasures (and most contact with other beings) had been forbidden to him during his training.  After he was free to do as he liked, Kylo Ren's reputation was such that he couldn't simply... pick someone up, or walk in and pay for the pleasure, either.  
  
As a result, he was left with masturbation as his only sexual release, and with zero experience to build fantasy with.  As a teenager, the sensation of touching himself had been enough, but it got harder and more frustrating to bring himself off when he needed to.  As a devotee of both sides of the Force, very little knowledge of sexual practice had ever made its way to his ears, and his life had changed one day when he chanced to overhear a discussion about some lewd content on the holonet.  Searching the holonet for sexual content had never occurred to him.  He didn't have regular access to a holonet connection in those days, but he masturbated with gusto to the wealth of pornography the galaxy produced whenever he could find a private terminal.  
  
But his wank victory was short-lived after he realized that standard holoporn was too divorced from his own life.  He couldn't imagine himself doing it, having this kind of regular relationship with a woman.  Kylo Ren would never walk into a sparsely-used transport hub and incidentally have sex with the only other person there.  What was worse, he could easily imagine Ben Solo running across a young woman with a broken speeder, being recognized, and happily engaging in mutual pleasure with one another in the back seat.  
  
Without a regular connection to the holonet, it was easy to set aside the depressing thought that he was no longer fit for a human relationship, but he was still extraordinarily sexually frustrated and didn't know what to do.  When he got his own quarters on the _Finalizer_ , he began to experiment again, hoping that there was something for him out there, that he wasn't so broken that he couldn't get himself off to things that were clearly made with that express purpose.  
  
The _Finalizer_ had its own self-contained version of the holonet by necessity, as 82,000 people connected at once was too much of a drain on resources for a ship.  There was plenty of porn in the _Finalizer's_ holonet, and Kylo dabbled in it periodically, hoping for a revelation.  
  
And one night, he found Major Fuxx.  
  
Major Fuxx vids appealed to his baser instincts for a couple different reasons.  Regular pornography left him feeling emotionally frustrated, since it implied a kind of connection to another human that he badly wanted but knew he would never have.  Major Fuxx holoporn removed the human element, something that hadn't occurred to him before, in favor of a regular human getting fucked by a nonhuman.    
  
There was something absolutely filthy and xenophobic about his attraction to this idea.  He'd been mostly raised in the New Republic, and had constantly been bludgeoned with the idea that all species across the galaxy were the same, and excluding any sentient species from anything was a bigoted Old Empire way of thinking.  But for all that, he realized, suddenly, that he had never seen an inter-species relationship.  This had never occurred to him for some reason, and stumbling across it late one night on the _Finalizer's_ holonet had been mind-blowing in a way that nothing in his life, including his Force training, had ever been before.  He had gone out of his way to look for this information in the minds of those he interrogated, trying to figure out if this was a common type of sex, or if it was as bizarre as he thought it was.  He had yet to stumble across it in another mind, which made this even more forbidden and exciting.  
  
What was even more glorious was that the character of Major Fuxx, played by different actors, was always a pale-skinned human male with dyed red hair that often started the vids in a First Order officer uniform.  So it was no stretch at all to imagine that the man in the videos was Hux, the insufferable General aboard the _Finalizer_.    
  
He knew it was only coincidence.  Holovids in general seemed to fetishize red hair (and pubic hair) frequently, and "fuck" puns were ubiquitous.  He had even felt a little bad for Hux when he had done a search on the regular holonet while on a mission and found that Major Fuxx holoporn was its own subgenre, with a lot more videos than Kylo had imagined (although he added several to his repertoire whenever he could now).    
  
Did Hux know about it?  Surely not.  Xeno porn seemed, as far as Kylo could tell, too specialized to be general knowledge.  Each video on the _Finalizer_ holonet was tagged with the name of the person requesting it.  The twenty Major Fuxx vids had come from three people - two names that he didn't recognize, and learned later had been recruits that had been killed very soon after their service had begun.  And about half of the vids came from the same restricted account.  This was likely a high-ranking officer, and Kylo had frequently scanned the officer's minds to find out who, without success.  He suspected he and the officer were the only Major Fuxx fans currently assigned to the _Finalizer_.    
  
There weren't any other xeno holoporn files on the _Finalizer's_ holonet, although the regular holonet certainly had all flavors.  But Major Fuxx was what got Kylo off.  It was the personal connection he had been looking for.  He could easily imagine that he was watching Hux, unpleasant and uptight, losing himself in the sometimes messy sexual embrace of another species.  Perhaps this forbidden pleasure was the only thing in the galaxy that could get Hux off.  
  
He didn't actually know that much about Hux.  They butted heads sometimes, when their assignments overlapped, and advised each other when they didn't.  Kylo was technically supposed to report to him at the conclusion of all missions, but he rarely did, something that Hux hectored him about periodically.  Their interactions were brief, as Kylo Ren rarely spoke to other people and Hux didn't seem inclined to push the issue.  Hux was harsh and often unpleasant to speak to.  But he knew Hux took his command of the _Finalizer_ very seriously, and was sometimes fanatical in his efforts to sway systems to the side of the First Order.  When that failed, Hux was absolutely ruthless in his takeover efforts, and had the highest success rate in the Order.  Ren knew this was partially due to his own efforts as well, but the fact was that Hux's strategies always worked.  
  
Hux was very impersonal, and kept his mind closed to Kylo's prodding.  He was a perfect blank slate for Kylo to project his xeno fantasies onto.  Their occasional differences of opinion made it even better, as he could imagine the Major Fuxx videos as a punishment when he was feeling particularly petty or annoyed.    
  
Kylo scrolled up to the top of his own downloaded video list, and selected _Major Fuxx and the Busy Hands_.  
  
Today, Hux had been in the shuttle bay, and had tried to give Kylo a dressing down about losing control of the Knight.  Kylo had walked away, depressed, not wanting to hear it, which had infuriated Hux.  _Busy Hands_ was a good follow-up to that.  
  
The Major Fuxx actor strode confidently down a nondescript, poorly-lit hall.  He was dressed in a First Order officer uniform, greatcoat, and a hat that obscured most of his red hair, though some was visible around the edges.  He was wearing a mask that obscured most of his face, made out of the same material as his uniform.    
  
Kylo undid his belt with one hand, grabbing his bottle of lubricant from the floor with the other.  He pulled it into his hand with the Force, not bothering to bend all the way down for it.  He didn't take his eyes off the screen.  
  
Kylo had three Major Fuxx videos with this particular actor in them, who Kylo liked to imagine as a younger Hux.  He had the most authentic-looking uniform, only the stripes on the sleeve looked poorly pinned in place, and his hair was the same color as Hux's, and cut to First Order regulation.  His proportions were also close to what he imagined Hux's to be.  Other Major Fuxx were too muscular, had bad dye jobs, were too short, or had unrealistically huge dicks.  Kylo still masturbated frequently to them, but for tonight, he had to have what he considered the real Major Fuxx.  
  
"You, what are you doing?!"  Fuxx barked, overly loudly, and in a bad imitation of a New Republic accent.  He stopped and snapped to rather authentic military attention in front of the slumped-over figure of a brown-skinned besalisk, wearing an ill-fitting grey technician uniform of some type.  The besalisk's back was to the camera, and it glanced over at Fuxx, an angry, insolent look on its face.  
  
"I'm fixing like you said,"  It garbled out thickly, in broken Basic.  
  
"Fixing?  You said ------- clumsy."  The video skipped here, a second or two missing.  It didn't matter.  "Didn't anyone ever teach you how to do delicate work with all those hands?"  
  
The besalisk blinked its eyes and stood.  It was nearly twice the height of Fuxx, and Fuxx tilted his head up and clasped his arms behind his back, on top of the greatcoat draped over his shoulders.  Fuxx was in profile, and Kylo couldn't see his eyes from this angle.    
  
Kylo freed his cock from his pants and squirted some lube into his palm, closing the flip-top with one finger and beginning to stroke himself slowly, the cold lube a shock at first, but slowly warming between the skin of his palm and the smooth tightness of his stiffening erection.  
  
The besalisk looked down at Fuxx.  It was also in profile, and its too-small uniform was even more apparent from this angle.  Its pants only rode down to the knees of its stubby legs, most of its legs bare, and the waistband rode below the swell of its considerable gut.  The uniform shirt was stretched too tightly across its wide chest, bunching below its lower set of armpits.  It had clearly not been made for a creature with four arms, as there was only the suggestion of a sleeve on its top set of arms, the side seam split, revealing a generous swathe of skin between the arms on its visible side, the lower arm protruding from the end of the split.  
  
It cracked all twenty of its knuckles in front of it, and made a low thrumming sound as it inflated a flaccid, double-sided pouch that hung from its throat, below its round, reptilian head.  
  
"My hands are for different things,"  It mumbled brokenly again as it reached out with its lower pair and grabbed Fuxx around the waist, lifting him off the floor.  It removed Fuxx's greatcoat with its top arms, tossing it onto the floor.  
  
Fuxx steadied himself with his own hands against the besalisk's lower set of arms.  The besalisk lifted him high in the air, slightly over its head.  Fuxx looked down, delivering his next lines somewhat away from the range of the sound equipment, so they were hard to pick up.  "Unhand me at once, you filthy creature.  This isn't how you treat a superior officer."  This was said flatly, in the terrible New Republican accent, without much interest.  
  
The besalisk grabbed him with his upper set of arms by the shoulders, adjusting the lower set to clasp around Fuxx's ass and cradle him.  Fuxx sat down on the lower set of hands, and the besalisk brought him in closer, to lean against his broad chest.  Its hands were still steadying Fuxx's shoulders, and Fuxx's face was almost in contact with the fully inflated throat pouch.  The hat pushed back on his head, revealing more of his bright red hair.  
  
The besalisk spun slightly, and the camera jostled as the operator zoomed in over Fuxx's shoulder, showing Fuxx's hands coming up to part the inflated pouches down a slick slit in the middle.  Wriggling slightly and beginning to lift away from the besalisk's neck was a three-appendaged sex organ, yellow, horizontally ridged, and running with a viscous slime that appeared to be seeping from between the ridges in its side.  
  
Fuxx spoke quickly, pushing out his dialogue inexpertly, clearly beginning to get excited.  He was losing the New Republic accent, and was beginning to slide into a different accent Kylo couldn't quite identify.  "Filthy.  Absolutely filthy.  How could you bring something this repulsive into my base?"  Kylo assumed he was talking about the besalisk's sex organ, but his face wasn't visible, so it was difficult to tell.  
  
Fuxx held up his hands so the besalisk could pull off his gloves, and it reached up to pull off his hat soon after.  Fuxx put his arms out perfunctorily, and the besalisk spun around so the camera could get the full effect of its large, meaty hands ripping the tunic off Fuxx, then the undershirt.  Kylo had never spotted any fake seams, or heard a telltale sign of ripping velcro, so this always seemed authentic to him.  Kylo twisted his palm around his dick, wet his lips with the tip of his tongue, and began to stroke himself faster.  He teased the tip of his dick, and played his fingers down the underside periodically to make it last longer.  He hated finishing before Fuxx, and had learned the right pace to set for himself to last just as long as Fuxx did.  But it was always a hard thing.  Seeing the four large hands moving all over Fuxx's pale body excited him in a way that was new every time, and Kylo could never quite get over how much it twisted in his gut, made his dick throb and ache in his palm.  
  
The camera zoomed out to show the besalisk undoing Fuxx's pants with two hands, shifting its grip with the lower set to balance Fuxx's narrow ass in one large, kneading palm.  It lifted him up with two hands and yanked his pants off with a third, and spun around again on its stumpy legs, wetting a finger of the fourth hand in its mouth.  It pulled the finger from its lips and positioned its hand, finger upraised, below Fuxx.  It lowered Fuxx down ungently straight onto it.  
  
Fuxx yelled sharply as he went down on the finger, sobbing "Filthy, dirty creature" brokenly, in the strange accent, as he settled himself back into the besalisk's palm, its fingers still kneading around what it could reach of his ass and thighs, gripping him hard enough to make Fuxx squirm and to leave angry red patches on his skin.    
  
Inspired by Major Fuxx, Kylo had tried to masturbate a few times with his finger up his ass.  He had never known if he was doing it right or not, as it didn't feel anything but strange and a little painful.  He had even licked his finger, like the others did in the vids, but it never seemed to work for him.  Perhaps it had to be bigger, or bend in a certain way he couldn't bend his finger?  Watching things disappear into Major Fuxx's ass always took him out of the vid a little after his own experiments, since he didn't quite understand that part. 

He gripped his own dick more firmly, more determined, and moved the fingers of his other hand around the base of his cock, tightening his fingers in the lube pooling in his pubic hair, and began to jerk himself more roughly as Major Fuxx turned his attentions back to the besalisk.  
  
The besalisk, one hand going to Fuxx's cock and the others going back up to his shoulders to knead tightly, turned again so that the camera could zoom in on its yellow besalisk sex organ, from the side and  little behind Major Fuxx.  Fuxx leaned forward, hands disappearing into the inflated neck sacks, his lips wrapping around the center prong of the sex organ.  The besalisk began to make a steady, low humming noise that interfered with the audio and made a static-y crackling sound that lasted the rest of the video.  Fuxx pulled back, the viscous yellow coating of the sex organ trailing after his chin as he lathed his tongue back along its length, probing the ridges.   When he chased the organ back down to the root, he began opening and closing his mouth, making what sounded like sucking, moaning noises, and the camera panned around to show the prongs on either side of Fuxx's face flexing along unseen joints, caressing his cheeks, trailing the mucous from the line of his jaw up over his cheekbones, ear to the corner of his lips.  It shone in the low light of the hallway.  
  
Kylo moistened his lips and tightened the grip on the base of his cock, slowing his jerking one again, thumbing the head of his dick.  It was throbbing in his hand, and he was trying to hold himself back.  The lube had dampened the front of his pants, which he hadn't bother to take off, but he rarely troubled himself about such things.  
  
In the vid, Fuxx moaned as his fingers kneaded the swollen pouches on either side of his face, and one of the besalisk's hands wandered up to cradle the back of his head, the other caressed him gently under his chin.  The hand on the back of Fuxx's head began guiding him up and down the center appendage of the sex organ, over and onto the other appendages.  The appendages began stretching to caress his ears, when they could reach them, and the besalisk's fingers began trailing slime from Fuxx's cheeks through his hair.  
  
The video skipped again here, and resumed with the camera pulled back, the besalisk bouncing Fuxx by the shoulders with two hands, probing his ass with the finger of his third hand, and jerking him with the fourth hand.  Fuxx's cock all but disappeared into the besalisk's palm.    
  
After another minute of this, Fuxx came.  This was normally where Kylo came as well, just after the besalisk pulled the hand he did the finger-fucking with out and slapped Fuxx across the ass with it, holding him up with two thumbs hooked under his armpits and the fingers around his shoulders, gripping his biceps tightly enough to make Fuxx squirm.  
  
Kylo found himself peaking, not able to finish.  He was growing frustrated.  Perhaps it was because had started depressed tonight, was technically in the wrong mood for this, was trying to make himself feel better.  He had only watched the next part twice.  He was jerking fast now, no point in pacing himself, and had removed the hand gripping the bottom of his cock to put two fingers in his mouth, biting down on them, trailing his thumb and two fingers across his cheeks to paint them with lubricant, matching Major Fuxx.  
  
The besalisk gripped Fuxx with all four hands, two around his thighs and two around his biceps, crushing him into its soft chest.  Fuxx's head came into the throat slit, and the besalisk trailed his well-fucked, slime-coated face over and over its genitals and across its throat sack.  The besalisk was still making the sound that interfered with the audio, so Kylo couldn't tell if Fuxx was responding to this with any sort of noise.  He wasn't moving, wasn't visibly responding at all.  Was merely being swiped into the besalisk's sex organs.  
  
The besalisk pulled Fuxx away, stretched its sex appendage out to twice its length, and appeared to orgasm, a runny, bluish fluid bursting out the ridges along its organ to soak Fuxx.  The pouches deflated as gouts of the runny blue fluid coursed over Fuxx, into his face, and down his body.  There were white capsules that were barely visible peppering translucent the blue fluid now coating Fuxx's skin.  The fluid obscured the red marks and bruises from the besalisk's roaming, ungentle hands.  
  
The besalisk dropped Fuxx on the floor just after its orgasm.  It sat down hard and wrapped its arms around itself, covering the damp spot on the front of its work uniform and the fluid trailing over its belly.  Fuxx hit the cracked grey floor on his back with a slapping sound, in a puddle of the besalisk's sexual fluid.  He picked up both his hands, studied them closely, and began licking the fluid off one palm.  
  
That was all Kylo needed.  He bit down on his own fingers hard enough to draw blood, closing his eyes and pumping his straining, painful dick one last time and catching the come on his hand.  The orgasm racked him hard this time, sending tremors through Kylo that made what felt like every muscle in his body clench, then relax, over and over again.  He squeezed his his eyes hard and let the tremors pass through his body, savoring the sensation, the pain, the physical pleasure.  
  
In the vid, the besalisk's humming noise had ceased, tapering off shortly after its orgasm, and the audio cleared up.  When he bothered to watch the besalisk orgasm, he turned it off just here.  
  
Today, it kept playing.  Kylo's eyes flew open when he heard something low from Fuxx that sounded like "Losing control of my own men," in an Old Empire accent.  
  
_Aren't you their master?  I didn't think you were one to lose control of your own men._  
  
Hux had said that to him this morning, just after he had stood back to watch Kylo kill the Rogue Knight.  
  
He had said it in exactly the same tone of voice, with the exact same accent and emphasis on the words.  
  
Major Fuxx's voice was a little rough from having deep-throated a three-pronged besalisk neck-dick, but the voices...  
  
No.  
  
It had to be a coincidence.  
  
The video had faded to black, and the screen was showing Kylo's list of saved Major Fuxx porn.  
  
A coincidence?  Really?  That there was a redheaded First Order officer with the same voice and stock set of phrases, and almost the same name?  
  
No.  
  
But Kylo felt his spent cock stirring slightly at the thought that he could be right.  
  
How to find out?


	2. Chapter 2

Kylo strode unceremoniously into General Hux's office immediately after disembarking from his return shuttle two weeks later.  Kylo had security codes that overrode every door on the _Finalizer_ , and as far as he knew, was one of the only people that had access to the General's office.  The door hissed closed behind him as he came to a stop in front of the General's desk, hunched in what he hoped was a vaguely threatening posture.  
  
The General stared at him with an unreadable expression for a full minute, neither man breaking the silence.  Eventually, the General sat his datapad down on his desk.  
  
"Can I help you?"  
  
"I completed my mission on Seltos."  
  
The General was silent for a few moments.  "I... see.  Are you here for the debriefing?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
The General folded his hands, was silent for another moment.  "You can see how I might be confused about your intentions.  Normally I set these appointments for you, and you blow them off until I pull you forcibly from training."  
  
"I wanted to get it out of the way."  
  
The General was silent for a moment.  "All right."  
  
They stared at each other in silence again.  Kylo had hoped his silence would be intimidating, and Kylo Ren was mostly a silent person, but this was turning more awkward than he liked.  Somehow, the General had the upper hand here.  Kylo licked his lips and began to perspire lightly, wondering if this was going to backfire.  
  
The General looked unruffled, and continued to stare at Kylo with an arrogant, unreadable expression.  Eventually, the General broke the silence again.  "Let me refresh your memory, Lord Ren, since you seem to have forgotten your mission at some point between leaving Seltos and walking into my office.  We suspected there was a leak at the mining colony there, since the Resistance kept intercepting our material shipments.  We sent you and the Knights of Ren six cycles ago to determine if this was true.  You reached the surface five cycles ago.  Something happened - and this is the part you're going to have to help me with - then you left the planet one cycle ago.  Promptly, upon boarding the _Finalizer_ , you walked into my office.  I initially thought you might have something of major import to tell me, seeing as how this is not an excursion you've made before.  But here we sit, and I'm the one telling you about your mission.  Is there anything you'd care to share with me?"  
  
Kylo thought, briefly, about how easy it would be to kill the General right now.  All it would take was one thrust of his lightsaber.  He could do it fast enough that the General wouldn't even know it was happening.  There would be no mess, the lightsaber would cauterize the bleeding immediately.  So, decapitation?  Through the chest?  
  
His hand twitched by his lightsaber, and an unusual show of self-control stopped him.  If he killed the General, he wouldn't be able to run the _Finalizer_ himself.  He'd definitely have to go somewhere else, and the _Finalizer_ was an easy place to get comfortable shelter and food for the Knights.  He wouldn't be allowed on another Destroyer, and they'd probably have to go live in seclusion somewhere.  Kylo didn't want to do that anymore.    
  
He let his hand drop from his lightsaber, decided to ignore the insults.  "The mining colony on Seltos has habitation contained in one settlement, and the workers are shuttled off to the mines on staggered multi-cycle shifts.  Their families stay behind in the settlement.  We manufactured a reason to have all the miners leave, then captured all the families, and brought all of the personnel back.  We threatened the families until the population gave up the spy.  I interrogated her personally until I was satisfied there weren't any other links back to the First Order.  We executed the family for colluding with the Resistance, and left."  
  
The General nodded once.  "You make it sound so simple.  It took you four cycles?"  
  
Kylo couldn't tell if this was an insult or not.  He decided to ignore it.  "It took one cycle to scout the circumstances and plan the best course of action.  One cycle to move the personnel around.  One cycle of persuasion for the entire population.  And one cycle for my interrogation and the cleanup."  
  
The General leaned back in his chair.  "How much of this was Force-sensitive work?"  
  
Again, Kylo felt vaguely insulted by the question, but answered it anyway, hoping compliance might make the General more amenable to answering difficult questions later.  "Almost none of it.  I did a standard interrogation until the traitor gave up her Resistance contacts and how she was getting in touch, and then I used the Force to take information about anyone else who was colluding with her at the mining colony and the First Order, which I was sure she was lying about.  Very few were involved.  We executed them all publicly as examples."  
  
"How many lives were lost overall?"  
  
Kylo had to take a moment to remember.  "About a dozen non-essential personnel were used to convince the traitor to step forward.  The traitor, and two who knew about it, who were production staff.  Six others who knew of their activities and did not report, who were also non-essential."  
  
The General nodded again, and leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms.  "Excellent work.  You found the leak with little to no impact on the resource production on that planet.  You ensured that there were no other links elsewhere in the First Order.  You did so in four cycles, with only five other soldiers.  Your interrogation work and tireless efforts to flush out traitors are commendable, Lord Ren.  I could not have asked for better results."  
  
This was so surprising that he blurted his thoughts before he had time to consider them.  "You've never praised my work before, General."  
  
"That's because, typically, I would be left wondering for weeks whether your mission was successful, and whether I could depend on the material from that mining colony making it to our production facilities.  That does not leave me in a complimentary state of mind."  
  
"You should just assume that my missions are successful.  I always complete the objective."  
  
"Yes, but sometimes you do it in a more destructive way.  Slaughtering personnel unnecessarily.  Driving valuable employees literally insane when you can't find what you're looking for.  We can't use them after that."  
  
Kylo saw the opening, and took it.  He stepped forward and planted both palms on the General's desk, leaning as far forward as he could.  "I always find what I'm looking for, eventually."  
  
The General remained impassive.  "You do.  But you don't have to break the minds of innocents to find it."  
  
Kylo shifted his eyes over to one of the lighting fixtures mounted near the top of the General's wall.  With a thought, it shattered, and the room darkened.  "I find that breaking things is an excellent incentive for others to give me what I want."  
  
The General sighed, leaning forward to meet Kylo face-to-face in the center of the large desk, his blank expression unchanging.  "I thought perhaps you had found something of importance on Seltos, but I should have known you wanted something.  For future reference, you could just ask first.  I am less amenable after being threatened."  
  
Kylo used the Force to do a shallow mind scan, finding that the General wasn't at all threatened or frightened.  Disappointing, and aggravating, but probably not surprising.  But Kylo decided that, since he was committed to the threat, he should probably continue to use it.  
  
"You take a four-cycle leave every three months.  Very regularly.  Where do you go?"  
  
The General's face fell open in an expression of shock, which would have been very satisfying if Kylo wasn't so nervous about this.  He had spent the week before his mission researching the General, and this was the only concrete personal information he could find.  Doing a shallow scan on the minds of the other officers, he could not find any hints of friendship between the General and anyone else on the ship.  If he had, he would have just invented a reason to do a mind probe on the other officer to find out if they knew about Major Fuxx.  
  
Kylo had left for his mission feeling frustrated, not knowing how else to get the information from the General.  But the mission had provided inspiration.  Reminded him.  
  
"I can take what I like, General.  But it's easier for both of us if you just tell me."  
  
The General had still not gathered composure enough to hide his thoughts from his face, and Kylo felt a satisfying thread of fear creeping up into his thoughts.  "Do you think I am a traitor, Lord Ren?"  
  
Kylo hadn't considered that as the most likely reason for an interrogation of this nature.  But it was interesting, and if it yielded the truth, he might as well let the General think so.  He remained silent, to see what else the General would offer for free.  
  
"Did someone on that... on the mining colony tell you that I was in on whatever little supply scam they were running with the Resistance?"  The General had braced his hands on the desk and stood up, fury replacing the fear in his thoughts.  He leaned forward to stare into Kylo's mask.  "Do you honestly think I'm trading First Order secrets for... for what?  What could the Resistance possibly give me that I don't get from the First Order?"  
  
Kylo stood up straighter and crossed his arms.  "What I think, and what I know, matters very little in terms of your answer to my question.  What."  He began to walk around the desk.  "Do."  He stopped, nearly toe to toe with the General.  "You."  He leaned forward, almost rubbing the General's nose into his mask. "Do, General Hux?"  
  
The General narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest, but didn't back off a step.  "I think you would have killed me if you genuinely thought I was a traitor.  It's well-known you can't stand them.  But I feel insulted you would suspect me of... of selling out the First Order to the Resistance."  
  
Kylo could have said that he felt insulted by a lot of what the General said, as recently as when he walked into the room.  But he left it.  "Answer the question."  
  
The General was absolutely furious, and not really scared of Kylo, the way people normally were when he went through these motions.  Kylo caught a stray thought, the knowledge that if Kylo hadn't outright killed him for being a suspected traitor, this might be about something else.    
  
Through his fury, the General answered.  "What I do on my leave is personal.  Do I visit family?  Do I scout the culture and politics on planets we are considering as trade partners?  Do I do what any officer does on leave?  Take your pick.  I do not meet up with Resistance spies and sell out the First Order.  If that's all, Lord Ren, I have a lot of work to do."  
  
He sat back down at his desk and made a show of picking up his datapad, clearly intending to ignore anything else Kylo said.  Kylo considered cracking the datapad in half, but most of his mind was analyzing what the General had said.  
  
_'What any officer does on leave?'_   What did that mean?  Kylo let his posture falter.  He thought about asking the General, but the way he said it made it sound like common knowledge, and he felt too proud of upsetting the unflappable General to undo it by making himself look stupid.    
  
Satisfied with his day's work, and treasuring the look of shock and the thread of fear in the General, he swept out of the office to investigate what officers supposedly did on leave.  
  
***  
  
Officers were disgusting.  
  
Kylo thought he had seen the worst the galaxy had to offer in terms of drunk debauchery.  He had gone to enough seedy establishments with his father and Lando to see people get drunk, gamble, and flirt.  
  
But if the holonet was to be believed, junior officers took this to a whole new level.  He saw holofilms and holovids (he wasn't sure if these were real or staged) of the officers drinking so much they made themselves sick.  What an absolute waste of time, money, and resources.  Kylo watched them do this while gambling and losing their whole pay.  Kylo was a good enough gambler to know you only pretended to be drunk when you played.  Why would you do it while intoxicated?  Of course you'd lose all your money.  
  
And he learned that men and women went to different academies that had breaks on different schedules.  He found several resources (most of which were obvious holoporn with non-military personnel) that told him what happened whenever the two chanced to meet.  It was much different than the holovid couplings he'd watched before.  They almost always involved multiple partners, often at the same time.  Multiple partners in a row, or at once, hadn't occurred to him, but he found the officers indulgences to be so sickeningly excessive that he couldn't find the behavior anything but appalling.  He set the thought aside for later investigation though, thinking it may have merit in other contexts.  
  
And there was something else, relevant to his current interests.  He saw a running joke about how much academy graduates enjoyed the pleasures of other species.  There was only a few references to this in the Basic-language human resources.  But this was too solid a lead not to pursue, and Kylo had to delve into the non-Basic side of the holonet to find this (he wasn't sure why the _Finalizer_ had gossip and entertainment articles in other languages, but they were there).  Apparently young officer's fondness for other species was... a joke, at least?  Was it based in reality?  He couldn't be sure.  There was one or two encounters described that Kylo didn't credit - he refused to believe that a human could really do that, or that chadra-fan had that many different types of genitals.  
  
His forays into the _Finalizer_ holonet left him with more questions than answers, and he had two courses of action - invent a mission for himself that would take him planetside and give him access to the real holonet and more information, or take the information straight from the source.  
  
Light mind scans had never revealed any of this when he'd looked for xenophilia interest previously.  So he'd have to look deeper.  General Hux had described Kylo's hatred for traitors as "well-known," so he thought a mind probe described as a loyalty check would be seen as in-character.  
  
He flagged only the newest petty officers for it, about thirty people.  He was granted permission quickly and without comment.  He liked to imagine that it had something to do with scaring the General several days before.  
  
The mind probe was... educational.  It enforced what the holonet had told him about what officers did on leave.  Additionally, he found that a xeno encounter was a rite of passage, an open secret, for most academy students.  The graduating class always went out to the same bars, with the same clientele, and had an experience.  Classmates did not monitor you in this - most only got drunk with their chosen company, a few were drunk enough for sloppy fumbling with a twi'lek.  Two, in this group, had been curious enough for a night with a zeltron and a bpfasshi.  Many bragged about getting their experience before this night too, and some did, because it was an easy thing to do.  One among this group had a chiss lover for a period.  Kylo spent extra time examining her memories.  
  
Ultimately, they were all absorbed into the First Order and kept to humans after that.  The older the officer, the less likely they were to go out and debauch themselves, too.  And he confirmed what he believed about sex between species - it was seen as taboo and disgusting, something most of the officers looked back on with unfortunate regret, or just another horror of the peer pressure in the academy system.  
  
Two of the officers had declined the xeno graduation trial, and didn't seem to indulge planetside the same way those of the same age did.  Kylo didn't believe this, and dug harder through their memories and intentions until he broke their minds.  He never found anything.  He also found one actual traitor, by accident, and executed him after forcing him to talk about his Resistance contacts.  
  
This left him feeling very positive about his theory that General Hux, as a younger man, made Major Fuxx holoporn.  He celebrated by taking a day alone with Major Fuxx, and submitting a written report about his "loyalty check," hoping to return the favor to Hux, who seemed to get off on punctuality these days.    
  
Major Fuxx was proving important for another reason - it gave him something to keep his mind off the recently deceased Knight.  Training every day and doing the mission without the Knight by his side was difficult, and he was having trouble masking his depression from the others.  He was also under pressure to replace the Knight, from both inside and outside the Order of Ren.  He could hide behind the fact that they had been systematically eliminating Force users from the galaxy, and that the right candidate was difficult to find, but he also just couldn't bring himself to do it.  There was no replacement for the one he'd lost.  
  
So he found himself turning from that, and gladly devoting himself to discovering what he could about Major Fuxx and General Hux.  
  
Kylo wasn't sure he could face the General, with his increasing certainty that he masturbated to videos of the General having sex with non-humans.  But his certainty did make the videos much more arousing.  
  
Kylo gave himself a month to make peace with his perception of the truth.  Then he waited in the shuttle bay, for when he knew the General would show up to take a private ship out for his 4-day leave.    
  
The General gave a slight start when he entered the bay and saw Kylo hunched over, waiting, next to his ship.  He composed himself, then closed the distance between them.  Kylo was disappointed that he looked the same as usual, same uniform and everything.  He had been secretly hoping for a different outfit, a suitcase full of necessaries when one gets drilled by strange appendages.  
  
"What can I do for you at this particular moment, Lord Ren?  I'm off duty.  If you're in need of assistance, please see Major General Cassio on the bridge."  
  
"I want an answer to my question."  They hadn't spoken in six weeks, and had been avoiding each other.  Kylo because he wasn't sure how to feel about the General being Major Fuxx, and the General likely because he was afraid Kylo would pop out like the bogeyman and submit him to a mental probe, like Kylo was planning to do right now.  Still, Kylo was sure the General would know which question he meant.  
  
The General narrowed his eyes.  "What I'm about to do.  Tell me, Lord Ren.  What do you think I'm about to do?"  
  
Kylo wasn't prepared for this question and didn't have a smooth lie at hand.  But Kylo had a strategy for opponents that could out-talk him:  He walked up to the General, straight into his personal space, and bent his helmet within centimeters of the General's face.  
  
"Let me rephrase the question in a way that you'll understand, since you seem confused about your answer.  You are standing here, in the shuttle bay.  You will board a shuttle and fly it out of the range of the _Finalizer's_ scanners.  You will be absent for four cycles - and this is the part you're going to have to help me with - then you will return to the _Finalizer_ , disembarking in the shuttle bay.  The shuttle will be wiped of your destination.  You will never report back about this time.  Nobody on board knows.  I wish to."  
  
Unexpectedly, the General smirked, the half-smile sitting cruelly on his face.  "How long did you have that saved up?  All month?"  
  
Kylo kept his body still, but underneath his helmet his face folded in fury.  The General wasn't the least bit frightened or intimidated, only weary and a little bored.    
  
Kylo grabbed the General roughly by the neck and pinned him against the hull of the ship, arm across his chest, feet up off the ground.  
  
"That wasn't an answer."  
  
He choked the General for a few more moments, felt him writhe and pull at his arm, before he loosened his grip enough to let the man breathe.  He released the pressure from his chest, set him back down.  Kept a tight grip on his throat.  
  
The General sucked in a quick breath, closed his eyes, continued to grip Kylo's arm tightly.  
  
"Kill me."  
  
"What?"  Kylo's incredulity was likely audible through the voice synthesizer in his helmet.  
  
"Kill me.  Right here and now.  Either you think I'm a traitor, or you think I have personal business you need to know about.  Either way, you will get nothing from me.  So you will either kill me, or let me board my ship."  
  
No fear.  None at all.  Whatever he was doing, he would rather die than tell Kylo.  Kylo was more sure than ever he had a sordid personal life he did not want to share.  
  
He had planned on probing the General's mind, and now was the perfect time, except Kylo was too angry to do it.  The General's reaction was not at all what he was used to, and it was infuriating.  He needed fear the most for the mind probes, and while he could channel other emotions, he was too furious, and only the fear would do.  This only made Kylo more frustrated.  He tightened his grip on the General's throat again and hoisted him off the floor, plunging deep enough into the General's mind to feel the edge of consciousness when it came.  He dropped the General to the floor just before he passed out, and left him there, gasping, bruises purpling around his neck.  
  
Kylo took one breath.  Two.  Stared down at the General.  
  
"I'm going with you."  
  
"You are not," the General gasped, glaring at him from the floor as he pulled himself into a sitting position.  Hate was clearly radiating from him.  Kylo drank it in, savored it, but it still wasn't the fear he needed for this.  
  
Kylo got down on his knees directly in front of the General.  "Stop me, then."  
  
He had a split second to realize the General had jabbed something into his side before he felt the electric shock run through his body.  He jerked his head down to see the General had some sort of modified stunner in the hand not around his neck.  He was regarding Kylo impassively, blue eyes lazy and uninterested, and was not letting up on the current.  The shock was too much, the pain and surprise and dismay and rage roiling too hard for Kylo to reach out with the Force, and the attack itself paralyzing his limbs into inactivity.  
  
The General pushed into Kylo's side hard enough to topple him to the floor.  The General paused, and watched Kylo gasp for breath as he sat up into a crouch, then jabbed the stunner into Kylo again and turned it back on.  Kylo felt the voice synthesizer in his mask blow, and his last thought before blacking was that perhaps his lightsaber would explode and kill both of them.  It was certainly unstable enough.  But then he saw it on the floor next to the General's shoes.  When did that happen?  When had he taken it?  
  
When he came to, he was lying on the floor of the shuttle bay.  The General's ship was gone.  He sat up on the floor, attempting to remove his helmet and weakly using the Force to split it open when he realized all the electric components, latches and voice synthesizer, had shorted and melted, making it impossible to lock into place and blackening the visor inside.  
  
He put his gloved hands on his face and drew them down, and heard a crinkling.  A flimsi note had been pinned to his chest.  He pulled it up, still too numb to process what had happened.  
  
_Lord Ren,_  
  
_You'll find your weapon in your quarters.  I did not want you taking out your anger in the shuttle bay.  Please destroy your own things instead._  
  
The rage hit him all at once, and he looked around, wondering if anyone had seen him on the floor, beaten like some trainee.  He crumpled the note in his hand, and decided it contained good advice.  He rose to retrieve his lightsaber and destroy whatever was closest at hand.  
  
\---  
  
Kylo spent another month mostly avoiding the Knights of Ren and trying to formulate a plan, some way to take the General unaware, but in a way that let himself remain impassive enough to do a mind probe.  It would be difficult, since the purpose of the mind probe still made him vaguely uncomfortable (what if his mind was full of... more sex with other species?), and the General had proven himself to be a crafty opponent.  Kylo could watch out for the stunner again, but would the General use it?  Would he use it differently?  Would he have a different weapon?  
  
Kylo had calmed down enough by the time he walked from the shuttle bay to his room to not turn on his lightsaber right away.  He had been concerned it had somehow been damaged in the electric shock, but instead he found that the General had removed the kyber crystal and hidden it elsewhere in his room.  It took long enough to find that he went to the General's office afterwards.  So there may be retribution for that to look forward to, as well.  
  
After an increasingly rare training session with the Knights one day, and still frustrated about his lack of options to approach the General, Kylo did a search for new holonet content, and was shocked to find a new Major Fuxx video, tagged with the same restricted account as the others.  This surprised him, since all the vids had been uploaded before Kylo had been assigned to the _Finalizer_.  There hadn't been a new one in years.  
  
This new one was _Major Fuxx Mines for Gold_.  Kylo started it and simultaneously saved it to his set.  
  
It opened in a dark room, with a triangle-headed Arcona with large, cloudy yellow eyes sprawled on the floor.  The lighting was too dark to tell if the Arcona's smooth skin was brown or dark green.  It was wearing the same type of generic work uniform the non-humans often wore in Major Fuxx vids, this one a gray jumpsuit with a zipper down the center of the front, and some strange flaps of fabric at the top.  It appeared to be groping around for something.  Kylo began to undo his belt, but faltered slightly when the Fuxx actor he suspected was Hux walked onto the screen, same crisp and realistic military uniform and mask, same poor imitation of Major stripes on his sleeve.  He was carrying a bucket in the hand facing away from the camera.  
  
This seemed too good to be true.  Kylo looked around his room suspiciously, as if someone was spying on him.  He cast his mind outward, pausing the vid while he did so, to see if he could detect a nearby presence.  There wasn't anyone, and he didn't sense that his room had been tampered with.    
  
He turned back to the vid, wrestling with himself.  Was this really a good use of his time?  Was this really what he wanted to be doing, as Kylo Ren?  Sitting in his room, not even aware of what time it was, looking over his shoulder for suspected spies and masturbating to xenophilia porn that he was fairly certain starred the commanding officer of the ship he was on?    
  
He tried to shame himself with the realization, to make himself stop.  Convince himself to get up and meditate, send his mind further into the Force, set aside the death of the Knight once and for all and return to his true calling.  But there was a voice in his head that told him there was nothing about his current hobbies that was even remotely like the Light side of the Force.  It was what he wanted to hear, so he unpaused the vid and began unbuckling himself, his mouth moistening with more excitement than he'd felt in a long time.  A New Major Fuxx vid.  
  
This one had such poor sound quality that Kylo could barely understand Fuxx.  He heard Fuxx bark out something impatient about "mining" and "work," in the same bad imitation of a New Republic accent.  Fuxx bent down to hoist the Arcona off the floor by the front of the uniform, and it tore open along the strange flaps laced along the front, obviously designed for that purpose.  
  
The camera jerked as the operator approached to shoot over Fuxx's shoulder.  The Arcona leaned back on one elbow and pawed at its torn uniform, peeling back slimy strips to reveal a rough patch of flesh that ran across the top of its chest.  Five rows of glistening pink nodules were nestled inside its rough dark skin, with some empty violet cavities dotted throughout.  The rows ran from shoulder to shoulder across the broad chest of the Arcona.  
  
The Arcona protested weakly, in a clear Old Empire accent.  "I'm blind, Major.  I can't do this kind of work."    
  
The dialogue was now audible, and Kylo spared a thought to wonder if it was because the camera moved closer.  
  
"Is your entire species useless?  What work can you do?"  Fuxx crouched forward and sat on his knees, getting into the Arcona's personal space.  
  
"Sex."    
  
This was more direct than usual, but Kylo didn't really mind.  He pulled his half-hard dick from his pants, and grabbed the bottle of lube from the floor, working the top open without much thought.  
  
The camera jerked back around to get a shot of the Arcona's long, scaly fingers, three on each hand, pawing at the front of Fuxx's uniform.  Fuxx helped it by undoing the buttons himself and grabbing one of its hands to slide inside, guiding the other one down to his belt.  
  
It began sliding his tunic down over his shoulders, undoing his trousers with the other hand and pulling them down.  Fuxx discarded his hat himself, his copper hair shining in the low light, the mask the only thing stopping Kylo from being sure it was really Hux.  Fuxx leaned forward and peeled back the fabric of the Arcona's tattered uniform, trailing long strings of slime between the strip of knobby flesh and his hands.  The camera spun back around and got a close-up as Fuxx leaned in and began fingering the cavities among the rounded, slimy nodules in the Arcona's chest.  It began making a series of high-pitched, distracting chirping noises.  Kylo winced, dribbling the lubricant from his palm onto his erection and beginning to stroke slowly.  
  
In between chirps, the Arcona began flicking out a long, narrow purple tongue that stretched between Fuxx's face and its mouth.  It began slapping Fuxx in the face and mask with it.  Fuxx began to make grunting noises as the tongue raised weals against his cheeks.  
  
Fuxx sat back to divest himself of his tunic, undershirt, and pants while the Arcona continued to grip his hip with one hand and strike him with its purple tongue.  It missed more often than not as Fuxx leaned away, and its tongue began moving lower, striking his chest and arms instead.  Wherever it touched, an angry red blotch appeared on Fuxx's skin.  There was a snapping noise that was mixed with the Arcona's chirping, but Kylo's stroking ceased as his mind began working over the mechanics, wondering if the tongue was really slapping Fuxx hard enough to weal his skin, or if it was something in its fluids that was burning Fuxx, or giving him a rash.  
  
Kylo frowned, his skin crawling.  He sometimes couldn't masturbate to the videos the first time, too fascinated by what was going on.  
  
Once his clothing was off, Fuxx crouched back down, grabbing for the bucket on the side away from the camera.  He pulled it in front of him, and grabbed the Arcona's hands, guiding them to the bucket.  The Arcona upended it over Fuxx's head, coating his skin with what appeared to be salt.  It stuck in his red hair and eyelashes, coating the places on his skin that had been dampened by the Arcona's touch.  He looked almost frosted.  Fuxx blinked and winced, rubbing at the weals already on his chest.  
  
"I should have known you'd be down here with the salt, like a common addict."  
  
Instead of slapping him, the Arcona began lapping at him eagerly, its tongue twining around Fuxx's bicep and sliding up and down, rubbing along his elbow and shoulder.  
  
Kylo was a little lost, but that often happened in these.  His jerking had stopped completely, curiosity temporarily trumping arousal.  
  
Fuxx leaned forward, up and off his knees, pushing his face into the row of pink nodules and cavities in the Arcona's chest.  He began lapping at the cavities, his fingers dancing across and darting between the nodules.  The chirping from the Arcona began distorting the sound on the video with its intensity.  Kylo couldn't tell if Fuxx was making any sounds.  
  
Its tongue began working through the salt in Fuxx's hair, the contrast between purple and red strangely alluring.  Fuxx situated himself more comfortably in the Arcona's lap as he reached up to hold his mask in place, the Arcona lapping over it eagerly in its apparent haste to get at the salt.  
  
Fuxx leaned back up, the tongue now trailing down his back and side and around his thighs.  There was definitely something in the Arcona's fluids that was aggravating Fuxx's skin.  Kylo could see ropey red lines where it had trailed over his arms, and the flesh of his hands and what was visible of his face was red and angry.  Kylo could see the red trail left by the tongue down Fuxx's back.  He could also see Fuxx's erection, persistent and clearly visible over his thigh.  
  
As the Arcona continued to dedicate itself to licking the salt from Fuxx, its hands remaining stationery around his waist, Fuxx reached forward and removed one of the nodules from the Arcona's chest.  A pink oval-like object came away, and Fuxx promptly popped it into his mouth.  It disappeared and reappeared as the flesh of his lips became swollen and very red.  He leaned forward again, bracing his hands against the Arcona's shoulders, still partially covered by the work uniform, and spit the nodule back out into a cavity.  He leaned closer and bit down into another, popping it, purple fluid splashing his face, his mask, and running down into the now-empty cavity and the one next to it.  
  
He leaned back up, purple fluid trailing from his lips and down his chin, putting his hands on the salt-covered floor briefly before his mouth drew down in a scowl and he pulled them back up as if burned.  He licked the salt off his palms, rising up into a crouch.  He pushed the Arcona backwards, so it lay flat on the floor, and stood to reposition himself over it.  He turned and faced the opposite direction, straddling the Arcona's large, flat head.  He lowered himself back down onto his knees, arching his back high and positioning his ass in the air above the top of the Arcona's head, its eyes staring somewhere into his chest.  
  
He lowered his face back into the row of nodules, pulling one up and into his mouth with his lips with what could have been a popping sound, but wasn't clear through the distorted audio.  Maybe that was just what Kylo thought it should sound like.  He'd have to watch again to make sure.  
  
The Arcona grasped in the salt on the floor with its hands, and appeared to grind it into the weals along Fuxx's back and sides.  Fuxx moaned loudly enough to be audible, his mouth occupied with the rather large object he had drawn from the Arcona.  His visible hand fisted onto the floor, and his body jerked.  Kylo could see his erection dripping down between the Arcona's eyes.  
  
The Arcona's hands grabbed for more salt, and rubbed it against Fuxx's as-yet-untouched pale, freckled ass, trailing its fingers down his thighs.  Its purple tongue came back out, and Fuxx began to make a high keening noise, biting down on the nodule in his mouth once again as the slimy tongue began to trail over his salted skin, raising the red weals wetly against his flesh.  The purple fluid began to run through his lips and down his chin again, back onto the Arcona's chest.  He bent back down and buried his face into a larger area of cavities, muffling what sounded like screams.  
  
The tongue began caressing the crack of Fuxx's ass, and Kylo paused the video, breathing heavily.  
  
He closed his eyes, the shudder passing over his skin again.  He was fairly certain he knew what was going to happen next, and he could feel his stomach twist with some unidentified emotion.  Disgust?  Horror?  His cock twitched, and he decided to jerk himself off quickly in the interlude, while the vid was still paused.  He ignored the fact he ran the likely scenario through his head to bring himself to climax, then, gasping, fingers covered with come, he unpaused the vid to finish.  
  
As expected, the long tongue reached all the way around, between Fuxx's pale thighs, and rammed itself perfunctorily into Fuxx's ass.  It was much narrower than other appendages Kylo had witnessed disappearing into that orifice on multiple actors, but Kylo could feel his spent cock stirring again at the thought of what the fluid had done to Fuxx's skin, and at Fuxx's scream.  
  
Fuxx came then, screaming, onto the Arcona's head, without Fuxx or the Arcona having touched his dick.  
  
The Arcona withdrew its tongue and reached up to feel its face, its fingers tracing above and between its eyes.  It put its fingers into its mouth, then began to lick the come off its own face.  Fuxx reached down weakly and grabbed another nodule, popping it between his fingers and letting the purple fluid trail between them.  He collapsed on top of the Arcona.  
  
The Arcona shifted him off, dumping him on the floor, and began lapping at the remaining salt.  Fuxx lay motionless, his abraded back to the camera, his side rising and falling weakly.  The Arcona was still chirping, and had gone to its hands and knees to lap the salt from the floor.  Slime trailed down in runnels from its chest.  The screen faded to black, showing Kylo his list of Fuxx vids.  
  
Kylo stared at the screen.  With the hand coated in drying, crusted semen, he restarted the newest Fuxx vid, reaching down for the lube with the other.  
  
***  
  
Kylo was in a relatively good mood all week.  He returned to training, drilling the Knights hard in lengthy, difficult sessions, and scanned through the list of mission requests, deciding he'd wait a little longer before accepting another one.  Every night, after exhausting himself in training, he would retire to his room with the newest Fuxx vid.  
  
After ten days, he thought to check the holonet again, not really expecting anything after the recent bounty.  He was shocked to see another new Fuxx vid:  _Major Fuxx and the Sanitation Issues_.  Starring the same actor.  
  
He managed both himself and his commitments to the Knights with both new videos, watching them again and again in his quarters, and learned how best to shorten his personal interval between viewings.  His technique was becoming sloppier, he thought, and he assumed he was quite good at it - it was all he'd had for a long time.  But the vids excited him too much, and he didn't actually have to put that much work into getting himself off.  Perhaps he would stop using the vids in a bit, once they weren't new anymore.  Go back to the old ways.  Perhaps even let himself meditate.  He was having a hard time clearing his mind to do so, as excited as he was about this.    
  
He forgot about confronting the General, the new vids being ultimately preferable to an interrogation he still wasn't sure how to approach.  Besides, the General was so stubborn that Kylo would probably have to break his mind to get what he wanted anyway, which would remove him from the _Finalizer_.  And he preferred the General walking the halls of the ship, the specter of his sordid past following him like a secret shadow that only Kylo could see.  Not that he'd seen the General at all since their last confrontation in the shuttle bay.  
  
He began checking the holonet more regularly, and found a new Major Fuxx video, with the Hux lookalike, every week.  After a month, he determined the exact time the videos got posted, and knew when he needed to sit on the holonet to see it added.  Mission requests for himself began piling up, and he sent his Knights out to do them instead.  He didn't want to be parted from his holoset.  On a mission, he could access the regular holonet, but he had never, on his own, found another Major Fuxx vid with the Hux actor in it.  He supposed he could look these up, now that he knew the titles.  But they were already here, on his set, in his private quarters.  Planetside, he would sometimes have to use the Force to direct people's attention away from the public holonet terminals while he used them.  It wasn't as good.  
  
After several weeks, he sat and queued up the newest video, freshly posted to the _Finalizer_ holonet.  He started it up, dick in hand, completely naked, as was his habit for these sessions now.  He may not have left his rooms for three days.  He may not have stood up at all in more than a full day.  He was vaguely hungry, but not enough to get up.  The hunger pangs hurt, as did climaxing so often in one night.  He has learned to set the pain aside.  Perhaps this _was_ a form of meditation, then.  
  
_Major Fuxx and the Naughty Knight_ began to play.  Kylo jerked back when he saw the actual, uncovered face of General Hux filling the camera, looking about ten years younger.  He stepped back, considering the lens.  He smiled.  It looked sweet, on Hux's face, and made him look even younger.  There was no sound, so Kylo did not know what Hux said when he turned and spoke to his companion.  It was a female twi'lek, small, green-skinned, missing one of her lekku.  She said something back.  She had a twitch on the right side of her face.  Both were naked, and they appeared to be in a bedroom that was much more nicely appointed than the usual Major Fuxx set.  
  
Kylo frowned.  This wasn't a Major Fuxx video.  
  
Hux ran his palm over the twitching side of the twi'lek's face, and brought her in for a kiss.  She wrapped one of her arms around his back.    
  
Then the video cut abruptly, and Hux reappeared, in his General uniform and at his current age, sitting behind the desk in his office.  
  
Kylo reared back in the overstuffed chair, bracing his hands against the seat.  
  
"I did some digging after our last confrontation, Lord Ren.  I couldn't find any record of you leaving the ship save for missions, and as far as I could tell, you went nowhere extracurricular on them.  Your Knights were ignorant of any reason you would have to interrogate me, and assured me they were present for all the questioning you did.  So I investigated your holonet activity instead.  Were you trying to dig up some dirt on me?"  
  
"Fuck!"  Kylo yelled, aloud, to the room.  
  
"Imagine my surprise when I learned what you do with your holoset, Lord Ren."  The General smiled.  It wasn't the same smile that Kylo had just seen, and it sat unpleasantly on the General's face.  "I thought at first you were trying to denigrate my reputation by claiming that I was Major Fuxx.  But you had watched the videos far too often for that."  He leaned forward, insufferably smug in the way that seemed singular to the General.  "I learned you were a fan."  
  
Kylo loathed him, suddenly and completely.  But he needed to know where this was going.  His mind worked, and he tried to still his rising panic, to think through what the General was trying to do.  Surely he couldn't use this against him?  Who would believe him?  
  
"I had to be sure, though.  So I uploaded more vids, and sure enough, they went onto your set, viewed multiple times."   He leaned back, putting his hand to his chin and turning away from the camera in mock consideration.  "I wonder if there was a correlation... the more vids there were, the less you appeared outside your rooms.  You also began refusing missions.  Busy, Lord Ren?"  He turned back to the camera and gave another smug grin, schooling his face into his usual neutral arrogance after a moment.  
  
Kylo's panic abated, replaced by a feeling of wrongness that grew stronger the more he attempted to analyze the General's actions.  All those vids... they were the same actor.  The Hux actor.  And Hux just happened to upload those particular ones?  With the same restricted account as the other Major Fuxx vids?  Not to mention the vid that had preceded this little dressing-down.  That had definitely been Hux.  
  
"In light of this new information, I re-considered your previous line of questioning, and your request to accompany me to discover what it is I do on my leisure time."  He smirked, his eyes glittering.  "Meet me in the shuttle bay in six hours.  I will wait one minute, and then I will leave.  If that happens, we will never speak of this again.  Enjoy your evening, Lord Ren."  
  
The vid faded to black, and the list of Kylo's saved holovids came back up.  _Major Fuxx and the Naughty Knight_ hadn't been added to the set.  
  
Kylo frowned, considering.  He should have known the new vids were a trap, had suspected as much at first.  He knew the General was a threat, but this was worse than he thought.  Kylo didn't often come across opponents that could out-think him and refused to be intimidated.  
  
He should really just kill the General.  He slumped back into his chair, working through the possibility.  His mind was divided.  He hated being bested like this, and really, such a dangerous person shouldn't be allowed to live.  But Hux was, in theory, an ally.  He was on Kylo's side, though it usually didn't feel like it.  Especially now.  
  
The General knew about his hobby, and had rightly called him out.  But again, could the General use it against him?  Would anyone believe it?  Who would the General tell?  Would it even adversely affect Kylo?  When Kylo thought about the probe on the petty officers, and how most of them had felt revulsion at the xeno culture in the academies, he thought that element of repugnance might actually be good for his reputation.  Maybe it _was_ something Kylo Ren did.  
  
But the video clip he had seen, before Hux cut in, had been intriguing.  And he still felt his traitorous cock stir at the thought of Hux being Major Fuxx.  He wanted to watch the vid with the wookiees again, to see Hux get what was coming to him as a form of petty revenge.  
  
He sighed, and queued up the wookiee vid.  Perhaps he should just go with Hux.  This whole thing wasn't really good for him, and maybe finding out would settle things, once and for all.  He knew, at least, that Hux had apparently fucked a twi'lek.  Was it really such a stretch, from there to the wookiees?  
  
He'd have to think about it more while he watched.  
  
As he settled into acceptance, he wondered if he would sit up all night watching the vids, or if he should sleep before confronting the General.    
  
Perhaps just a bit longer with the vids.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please come kinkshame me on Tumblr - [@vadianna](http://vadianna.tumblr.com).


	3. Chapter 3

"The security feeds tell me you arrived an hour and a half early,"  Hux offered by way of greeting while striding into the shuttle bay.  
  
Kylo was slumped against Hux's shuttle, hating him.  He had no comeback or defense for the statement.  He'd showered, shaved, and arrived early when he'd begun to fall asleep.  He hadn't wanted to miss his appointment.  
  
Hux was again dressed in his full uniform, including hat and gloves.  He stopped just in front of Kylo, clasping his hands behind his back and looking him up and down.  "That will do, for where we're going."  Kylo was wearing his usual attire, including his helmet, cloak, and gloves.  "Do you own an officer's uniform?"  
  
"Yes."  Kylo didn't elaborate.  He had been given one when he first boarded a Star Destroyer.  He thought it might still be in his closet, but he hadn't opened the closet since placing the uniform there.  He had never worn it.  He wasn't even sure what rank insignia it had on it.  
  
"That would be more appropriate, but this will work."  Hux gestured to Ren, waving his hand up and down.  "You might want to bring a change, though."  
  
"I only have one set."  
  
A brief look of disgust crossed Hux's face, quickly smoothed back into neutral arrogance.  "Of course.  Shall we?"  He held his hand out to the boarding ramp, and Kylo turned and stalked onto the ship, nervous and unsure how to feel about... this.  Whatever this was.  This kind of surprise was outside his realm of experience, and not really something he thought Kylo Ren would do.  But neither was it suited to Ben, which was some comfort.  
  
He settled into the copilot seat and let Hux take control of the ship.  They sat in silence while Hux carried out the takeoff and navigation procedures and maneuvered them away from the _Finalizer_.    
  
Kylo spent this time debating whether he was supposed to know where they were going.  Would asking make him look foolish?  Was it better to just be surprised?  Surely Hux wasn't taking him anywhere dangerous.  Even if he was, that was okay.  Right?  Kylo could handle that.  
  
But it was far more likely that they were going somewhere related to the videos, which they hadn't spoken about.  Kylo wasn't sure he was... quite mentally prepared for that.  Either the conversation or a destination related to it.  He sat agonizing over whether to bring it up, but finally turned to Hux after they made the jump to hyperspace.  
  
"Where are we going?"  
  
Hux turned to him, rolling his eyes.  "You must have some idea.  We're traveling to Nar Kreeta.  I'm sure you know what happens when we get there."  He turned back to the transparisteel viewport, watching the stars streak by for a few seconds, and then stood abruptly.  "It will take us one standard cycle to get there.  Judging by the access records on your holoset, I would guess that you haven't slept in two days.  Perhaps you'd like to rest until then?"  
  
Kylo stood and stared at Hux, who appeared to be waiting for some response.  Kylo didn't know where Nar Kreeta was, or what what was going to happen there.  He could feel his face heating behind the mask.  Was Hux waiting for him to ask more questions, or was he waiting for Kylo to respond to the insult about the holoset?  How humiliating.  
  
He decided to approach the topic from a different direction, with the other question he had for Hux.  "You put those videos on the holonet."  
  
Hux rolled his eyes again.  "I thought that would have been obvious."  
  
Kylo's face burned hotter, and he had to tamp down his anger, telling himself it wasn't useful here.  Hux was trying to show him something, though he wasn't clear on what.  "They were all videos of you."  
  
"I assumed you knew that as well."  He raised his eyebrows, crossing his arms over his chest.  "Did you sense it through the Force?  Does that work on holoporn?"  
  
"No,"  Kylo scoffed.  "That's not how it works."  He immediately regretted admitting this weakness.  It was better for Hux to believe he really was that powerful.  But he decided to continue with the truth, since he'd already ruined that tactic.  "Something you said in one of the videos... it sounded like you."  
  
Hux sighed.  "Of course it did.  I was usually in the spirit of the thing, more or less, so it makes sense there are mistakes of that nature."  
  
Kylo couldn't believe he was getting this confession.  "You really did all those things."  
  
"And you watched them with your own two eyes, or whatever it is you have behind that helmet."  
  
Kylo could feel his cock stiffening.  Maybe Hux thought he was a non-human.  He enjoyed the notion, and at the moment wished it were true.  He'd leave his helmet on and say nothing for the time being.    
  
"Why did you make them?"  
  
The corner of Huxl's mouth twitched.  "Because I was young, and other reasons."  
  
"You don't make them anymore."  
  
Hux's amusement folded into a frown, more genuinely displeased.  "Of course not."  
  
"Why upload those first ones to the _Finalizer's_ holonet?"  
  
"Hmm."  Hux uncrossed his arms and looked away.  "It was originally in self-defense, so I could check periodically to know whether anyone assigned under me was was familiar with... my other work.  I had forgotten about it, until I saw them on your set."  
  
Kylo thought about this.  "But... there are other Major Fuxx videos, without you in them."  
  
Hux looked back and nodded.  "Quite a few."  
  
"They must have been... popular enough, that people dressed as you?"  Kylo was having trouble with this concept.  
  
Hux looked away from Kylo for a moment, looked back.  "There wasn't a lot of that around, at the time.  I suppose people saw them..."  He stops.  "Well, they saw them and made more, I suppose.  You know all about that, obviously."  
  
Kylo doesn't know, isn't sure what he means.  Decides to skip that as well. 

"You uploaded other Major Fuxx videos to the holonet that didn't have you in them."

"Well," the corner of his mouth twitched again.  "Those may have been for my own amusement."

Kylo paused, wanting to ask one more question.  "The last one... wasn't Major Fuxx.  It was just you."  
  
Hux raised his eyebrows.  "Oh, yes.  That would have disappeared if you hadn't viewed it in six hours.  Consider it a rare look at my last video, for my biggest fan."    
  
The look on Hux's face didn't change with this admission.  Kylo wanted to squirm.  He didn't know how to have this kind of conversation with someone.  He wasn't sure if he liked the idea of Hux thinking of him as his "biggest fan."  But he did want to know more about Hux and the vids.  
  
"The twi'lek."  
  
"My lover."  
  
This gave Kylo pause.  "Your lover?"  
  
"The director and creator of the vids.  She was the one shooting all of them.  I stopped when she..."  he paused.  "After that video."  
  
"Why?"  
  
Hux looked away again and was silent long enough for Kylo to wonder if they needed to talk about something else, though he wasn't sure what.  This was painfully awkward.  But Hux eventually continued.  
  
"She died.  I didn't have any reason to continue them after that."  He looked back to Kylo's mask.  "How many people do you think have accessed that xenoporn on the _Finalizer_?"  
  
Kylo frowned.  "At least a few.  You said..."  he isn't sure if this is what Hux meant by it, but he decides to push it anyway.  "You said it's what all officers do."  
  
Hux studied him in silence for a moment.  He clasped his hands in front of him.  "There were two recruits who have since died that requested and watched a handful of videos once or twice.  But it's been mostly just you, for the last two years.  I'd uploaded some for myself, but I don't look at them very often.  I'm the only other person who's seen them, according to the access records."  He turned back around, faced away from Kylo.  "I uploaded the rest of mine, because I had to verify what I was seeing with your views on the other videos.  That was my complete oeuvre, so to speak."  He paused, then turned and began walking away, gesturing with his hand over his shoulder.  His voice came back more sharp and annoyed.  "I can't talk about this anymore.  Entertain yourself for a day."  
  
Kylo watched him retreat into one of the berths, the door closing behind him.  
  
Kylo still wasn't sure what was happening.  But he had slept and eaten very little the past week.  He was overwhelmed, and he didn't feel quite in control of himself or his reasoning abilities.  He closed his eyes and breathed out.  Perhaps he would collect some rations, retreat into another berth, and do as Hux suggested.  Maybe he would even have time to meditate.  Perhaps that would make things more clear.  
  
***  
  
Kylo stepped back out into the shuttle proper when he felt the landing a day later.  He had eaten, slept, and meditated.  He still had misgivings about this trip, but he'd decided to make it cathartic.  He was too focused on Hux right now.  Taking this trip would satisfy his curiosity, and he could put all this behind him.  He could return to being Kylo Ren.  
  
Resting hadn't really brought clarity to his situation, though.  He still didn't understand the purpose of this trip.  He'd looked up Nar Kreeta, and found it was a hub of industry and shipping in Hutt space, but that told him nothing.  He had imagined that Hux still made videos, and that Kylo could watch one being filmed.  But Hux had said he didn't do that anymore, so what were they doing in Hutt space?  Perhaps it _was_ only "what officers did on leave," but he had a hard time imagining Hux doing any of that.  Which was funny, given the other things he'd seen Hux do.  But if the trip wasn't to make a vid, why would he have... invited Kylo?  Was there something Kylo needed to do as a Force user?  
  
Hux stood to greet him in front of the bay door, hands clasped behind his back, hat in place, arrogant neutrality on his face.  With his mind less fatigued, Kylo could get a clearer read of Hux's emotional state, though still not a completely transparent one.  His emotions, what Kylo could pick up, were registering boredom and a twinge of curiosity.  But Kylo had never been great at pulling emotions out of Hux.  
  
"Have you been to Vena Cal before, Lord Ren?"  
  
"No."  He'd been to a lot of dives with his father and his father's friend, in another life, but they had always avoided Hutt space.  Kylo smirked behind his helmet, thinking that being frozen in carbonite would do that to a person.  
  
Hux studied him for a moment longer, and Kylo thought he might ask something else.  Instead, he pulled his hands from behind his back and turned toward the door.  He pushed the release with one and, and held the strange uniform-like mask that Kylo recognized from the Major Fuxx videos in the other.  As the door lowered, Hux fastened it to his face, covering all but his mouth.  
  
"I thought you said you didn't make the videos anymore."  
  
"I don't."  
  
"Why the mask?"  
  
"It serves much the same purpose, whether I'm making a video or not."  
  
Kyo paused for a moment, confused.  "You're concealing your identity?"  
  
Hux sighed in annoyance, striding out onto the ramp.  "No, I just thought it was a tasteful accessory for touring one of the largest cities in Hutt space.  Normally I love broadcasting my identity when I come here."  He glanced back at Kylo, though the mask hid most of his expression.  Kylo smirked behind his own.  
  
"It looks ridiculous."  
  
"I'll remember to take advice from you the next time I need to choose a tasteful disguise."  
  
"I might tell you not to wear something anyone in the galaxy would recognize you in."  There were only three other generals in the First Order.  Their identities were all a matter of public record.  The uniform was a dead giveaway.  
  
They were in the open shuttle port, making their way to the check-in clerk.  Hux stopped abruptly and spun to face Kylo.  "I can't tell, through the mask and whatnot.  Do you really not know what we're doing here?"  
  
Kylo also couldn't read Hux's face, and didn't like it.  Through the Force, Kylo could feel that Hux was curious and, strangely, apprehensive.  Kylo wasn't sure whether to admit his ignorance or not.  He glanced around the spaceport and decided to offer his best theory.  
  
"Are you blackmailing me into protecting you here?  Because you're doing something private and Stormtroopers would be conspicuous?"  
  
Hux crossed his arms, then uncrossed them and turned back around, throwing his hands in the air.  "I can't believe this."  He began to walk toward the clerk again.  "You can leave if you'd like."  
  
Kylo was even more confused.  "You should have just asked me."  
  
"You're just as conspicuous as a Stormtrooper."  
  
Hux reached the clerk and began negotiating the docking fee.  Kylo could feel the clerk sizing up their shuttle, which didn't have obvious First Order insignia and was one of the nicer ones in the port.  Kylo wiped the impulse to steal it from the man's mind, and thought briefly about killing him when they returned.  Threatening him right now would do no good.  
  
They finished and walked away, Kylo falling in step behind Hux.  "With a cycle in and a cycle back, we're staying here for two full cycles?"    
  
"Yes.  We'll likely spend two evenings planetside."  Hux didn't elaborate, and Kylo didn't push him.  Kylo lost his reading of Hux's emotions in the crowd of Vena Cal proper.  
  
He looked around.  It was twilight, and there were many different species milling around the dusky, packed streets of Vena Cal.  Kylo's eyes trailed along the rows of trading posts, cred exchanges, opulent gambling houses, chop houses, and the multitude of bars.  Speeders and transports zipped dangerously around the crowd.  
  
Kylo hadn't been to a place where humans were the minority since he'd left the company of his father and Lando.  His mother had never been to these places with them, which was funny, given the species equality messages of the New Republic.  With the First Order, it wasn't surprising that he had mostly dealt with humans.  He preferred that honesty to the blatant hypocrisy of the New Republic, where every species only mixed with their own, and even human cultures rarely overlapped.  
  
After walking for several minutes, they entered an area that appeared to contain mostly paid sex workers.  Kylo looked at the buildings, each with a different species standing out front.  He supposed this made things un-ambiguous.  He spotted the human establishment, which had both a man and woman by its doors.  He speculated idly about the Knights coming to places like this.  He knew some did, while others had lovers they returned to.  He turned away.  Even when it was right in front of him, he couldn't imagine himself approaching anyone for sex.  It implied a need he simply did not possess.  He could easily do without.  He kept his eyes on the back of Hux's head soas not to lose him in the crowd.  
  
As they threaded their way through the press of bodies, a chiss made a point of shoving Hux's shoulder and hissing into his face.  He spoke loudly and derisively in a language Kylo didn't understand.  Hux evaluated him cooly, looking him up and down, and pushed past him, muttering something in the same language.  Whatever it was, it had the chiss turning and bellowing after him.  Kylo laid a hand on the chiss's shoulder and squeezed.  The chiss's head whipped around to glare at Kylo, but when Kylo squeezed his shoulder hard enough to grind the bones together and forced him to his knees, his look of derision had changed to open fear.  Kylo stood over the kneeling chiss for a moment, then hurried after Hux.  
  
"What was that about?"  
  
"He knew where we were going."  
  
Kylo thought about angrily insisting on an explanation, furious that some chiss catcalling them in the street knew more about their destination than he did.  But he kept his mouth shut.  He wanted to see for himself what Hux had in mind.  
  
Hux silently led them off the main thoroughfare and down a maze of side streets and alleys.  There were a few anonymous doors along the walls.  Kylo tried to take a reading of the life behind them, and found nothing.  At the back of a dead-end alley, they reached a door that had a tattered, filthy First Order uniform nailed to it.  Kylo frowned.  It didn't seem like they'd be welcomed here.  
  
But as Kylo took the uniform in, something wasn't right about it.  It was a generic uniform without insignia, plaques, or cylinders.  It was also much larger than anything a human would wear, and had... a kind of skirt, instead of pants.  No uniform in the First Order had a skirt.  Kylo stared as Hux rapped sharply against the door.  
  
The door swung open, revealing a small ugnaught.  Its pale skin and piglike face glared up at Hux and Kylo, who both towered over it.  
  
Hux stepped forward and spoke to it in an Outer Rim patois that Kylo recognized, but didn't understand.  When Kylo tried to press into the Hux's mind to understand better, Hux stuttered, then turned to glare at him.    
  
The ugnaught didn't speak, but seemed to understand whatever Hux had told it.  It nodded and stepped aside.  Hux stepped into the darkness beyond, and Kylo quickly followed, but he felt jumpy with the small black eyes of the ugnaught on him and no idea what he was walking into.  Doubt began to press sharply into hsi thoughts.  Why he had decided to trust a man who starred in xenoporn to take him down a back alley in a busy Hutt port city?  Did he really possess so little self-control?  Were his decision-making skills this terrible?  He tensed, fully expecting an attack.  
  
They stepped through a darkened front room before Hux pushed through a door, hidden in such a way that Kylo wouldn't have noticed it by himself.  A green trandoshan dressed in a brown and black tunic stood at a podium on the other side, arms crossed, a dim room with a low murmuring and a familiar clinking of glasses behind him.  
  
The trandoshan's lips pulled back from the sharp teeth along its muzzle, though Kylo couldn't read the reptillian expression.  "General!  Has it been so long already?"  
  
Kylo was shocked to hear the trandoshan greet Hux with his actual title.  His head whipped back to Hux, who nodded cooly to the trandoshan.  "Koz.  Someday I'll walk in here and you'll have found something else to do with your life."  This was delivered with a rough Outer Rim accent that, as far as Kylo knew, went with the patois he'd heard Hux speak to the ugnaught.  It sounded much more authentic than Major Fuxx's New Republic accent.  
  
Koz closed its eyes and made a hissing noise.  Kylo wasn't familiar enough with trandoshans to interpret this.  Was it insulted?  Would it attack them?  
  
It opened its eyes and the square, horizontal pupils narrowed as they focused on Kylo.  It brought one hand up to tap its three claws on the surface of the podium.  "Never known you to bring company, General.  Going soft in your old age?"  
  
Hux snorted.  "This place is far from soft."  He turned to glance at Kylo, the mask still obscuring his expression, then turned back to Koz and shrugged.  "Who am I to say no to Kylo Ren?"  
  
Kylo was even more shocked that Hux identified him by name.  He took a step back, recovering himself somewhat when he realized he was probably even more identifiable than General Hux wearing a stupid mask.  So maybe offering his identity immediately was a good strategic move.  He stepped forward again, head down, trying to get a reading on the pair with the Force.  Both seemed affable, relaxed.  He turned his head to stare at Hux again.  He hadn't ever felt Hux relax like this on the ship.  This was new.  
  
Koz twitched his small, leathery ears and put a fist to the end of his snout.  Kylo still couldn't read the gesture.  
  
"His suit's a little ratty.  I'd expect you to bring someone who's dressed as smartly as you."  
  
A twinge of amusement from Hux, another glance.  "Well, it's his first time.  I tried to get him into a uniform, but I think this hides the surprise a little more, don't you?"  
  
Koz's pink tongue flicked out of his mouth.  "Not interested in the surprise, myself."  
  
Hux's mouth narrowed into a line.  "I am."  
  
Koz closed its eyes and made the hissing noise again.  "Everyone knows that."  
  
"I suppose they do."  Hux passed Koz some - Hutt currency?  Non-electronic?  Kylo stared at the money on the podium a second longer as Hux walked away.  He glanced back up to Koz's face.  
  
"Quiet one?  Most are, first time.  First time for you, Kylo Ren?"  
  
The question burned on his tongue.  He wanted to ask what was going on.  But Kylo Ren didn't ask stupid questions, so instead, he said nothing and followed Hux into the dark room.  
  
It was, as Kylo suspected, a bar.  There was a low buzz of conversation, and Kylo looked around at the tables freely as Hux walked confidently to the bar.  Most tables had groups of two or three at them, drinking fluids of varying consistency out of a large variety of unusual containers.  Some were gambling, cards spread out on larger tables with groups of six or so, and there was a pool table tucked into the corner.  Kylo licked his lips, thinking of Han and Lando's advice about gambling in Hutt Space.  
  
As he sat at the bar, it occurred to him that all the groups were mixed.  In Kylo's experience with mixed-species bars in large ports, species sat together, drank together, gambled together.  As he perched himself at the bar, he looked to his left and spotted a table that had a zabrak, an aqualish, and something Kylo couldn't identify.  He turned his head and saw a different ugnaught sitting with a similarly porcine snivvian.  He began to turn back to the bar and whipped his head back around when something unusual caught his eye, then he slowly spun himself around on the stool and looked at the room again.  
  
There were five other humans in the room, all were wearing sloppy imitations of a First Order uniform with major stripes pinned to the sleeve.  All had dyed red hair and were wearing masks.  He turned to look at the non-humans.  Most tables had at least one non-human wearing a counterfeit First Order uniform.  The nicest belonged to a chiss in the corner, sitting by himself, noticing Kylo's attention and glaring back.  Kylo shifted his gaze.  
  
There were two others wearing a helmet and outfit identical to his own (he loathed himself for remembering what Koz had said - their clothes were in better shape than his).  One person was wearing something that looked similar to his zeltron knight, but larger and modified to accommodate a togruta.  One large humanoid was dressed as Darth Vader.  At one table, a toydarian and some other winged creature were wearing old-style olive Imperial uniforms.  A kubaz appeared to be in the robes of the old Jedi order.  
  
Kylo spun back around in his chair so fast he nearly toppled over.  He tried to whisper, but the voice modulator in his helmet tended to make this ineffectual.  
  
"What is this place?"  
  
Hux turned to look at him, his palm out over the bar in what appeared to be some sort of service gesture.  "Have you really never been to one of these before?"  He was still using the Outer Rim accent.  Kylo thought it must be another element of his disguise.  
  
"One of what?"  He was beginning to become angry, embarrassed... he closed his eyes and clenched his jaw, willing it away.  He could control his emotions.  He was better than that.  He didn't need them right now.  For... whatever this was.  And it was just a bar.  Wasn't it?  
  
Hux turned back to the bar as the tall, long-necked bartender whose species Kylo couldn't identify walked up.  It was also wearing an old gray Imperial uniform.  It spoke to Hux in the Outer Rim patois, and Hux answered, turning to Kylo.  "What do you drink?"  
  
Kylo blinked behind his mask and said the first thing that came to mind.  "Whiskey and soda, on the rocks."  It had been something Han and Lando had ordered often.  He wasn't going to drink it with his helmet on, and he wasn't going to take his helmet off.  But he thought it might make him feel... something.  While he decided what was going to happen here.  
  
Hux leaned over to the bartender and ordered, and then turned back to Kylo, studying him.  "I assumed you were... at least somewhat initiated."  
  
"To what?"  Kylo was getting louder, letting the annoyance creep into his voice.  
  
Hux glanced over his shoulder to the room, then back at Kylo.  "There are five of these, in the galaxy.  This one's the largest, and the most species pass through this port.  I used to go to the one on Corellia when I was a junior officer, but that one is mostly human."  He paused.  "And I spent a lot of time at the one on Csilla, of course, when I was at the senior academy.  But that's mostly guilty chiss indulging in the taste of human, and I wasn't fully initiated at the time.  I've been to the other two as well.  But this is the one I return to most often."  He glanced around again.  "More familiar faces here, I suppose."  
  
Kylo shook his head.  "I don't understand."  
  
Hux's face was hidden behind the mask, though Kylo could feel his incredulity, frustration, and amusement.  "Do I have to spell it out for you?  I brought you here after I saw how frequently you watched those videos.  Certainly you can put two and two together."  
  
Kylo licked his lips.  "This is where different species mix."  
  
The corner of Hux's mouth turned down.  "Specifically with the intention of a sexual liaison.  Yes."  
  
Kylo clenched his jaw, and something tightened in his stomach.  He had sensed something along those lines... but he hadn't been able to determine how he should act.  What would Kylo Ren do?  
  
He looked around the room again.  He spotted a table with two twi'lek women at it, angled in profile to him.  The smaller green one wore the ragged remains of an old officer uniform, much too large for her, and modified in several places to fit.  She wore silver rings over her lekku, and had a variety of facial piercings.  She was holding hands with the other over the table.  Kylo had never seen a red-skinned twi'lek before, nor had he ever seen one so tall and massive.  She was wearing webbing over her lekku, and he wondered if she was the slave of someone in the bar, perhaps being sold to the other twi'lek.  
  
As if spotting his interest, the red twi'lek's head whipped around, and her yellow eyes narrowed.  Kylo turned hastily back to the bar when he felt someone reaching out to read him with the Force.  He slammed his mind closed abruptly, turning to Hux, his hand going to his lightsaber.  
  
"There's a Force user here."  
  
Hux turned to him.  "What?"  
  
"There's another Force user here."  He was trying to say this quietly, but his voice synthesizer nullified the effort again.  Still, he was fairly certain the twi'leks couldn't hear him from here.  
  
Hux glanced quickly around the room, back at Kylo.  "So?"  
  
Kylo was baffled by his nonchalance.  "It's my mission to wipe them all out."  
  
He felt alarm from Hux, and Hux reached out to put his gloved hand against the wrist he suddenly noticed on Kylo's lightsaber.  "Don't do that here."  
  
"What are you talking about?  I have to kill her."  
  
"No."  His grip tightened around Kylo's wrist.  "There's no violence here."  
  
"At what?"  Kylo all but snarled.  
  
"At the Officer's Clubs."  He guided Kylo's wrist up to the bar, where there drinks had appeared a moment ago.  His tone was annoyed, urgent.  "Certainly you know - or maybe gleaned from the comments I've made, I have no fucking clue what you know, as it turns out - that there's not a lot of us.  There's a code.  You can be a bounty hunter spotting someone you've been chasing for ten years, or you can be Kylo Ren spotting Luke fucking Skywalker, but you do not do harm to anyone inside these walls."  Hux paused.  "Unless they ask you to."  
  
"Luke Skywalker... wouldn't be in here."  Kylo added, unnecessarily, as he tried to process the rest of what Hux was saying.  He was sullen at being turned away from potential prey, and weighed doing it anyway.  Who would stop him?  Not Hux.  Probably not anyone else in the bar, either.  He glanced up at the large mirror angled behind the bar, which gave a view of the whole room.  The twi'lek had turned back to her companion.  She apparently wasn't perceiving him as a threat.  So what Hux was saying was true.  And it was a perfect opportunity to take her out.  
  
Kylo Ren would do it.  But he sighed.  Kylo Ren wouldn't be here.  Kylo's mind was almost refusing to accept the possibility, but it almost seemed like Hux had brought him along in some sort of strange gesture of... friendship, maybe?  It was a strange notion, and probably incorrect, since he'd been wrong about everything else so far.  He calmed himself down, forced the thought of violence from his mind.  If what he believed about Hux's intentions was true, he didn't want to ruin it.  A twi'lek like that would be easy to track.  He would find her later.  He tried to make more conversation with Hux.  
  
"Are these... bars really called Officer's Clubs?"  
  
Hux dropped his hand from Kylo's wrist and wrapped it back around his drink.  "Yes."  He took a sip, it was something blue with a lot of foam on the top.  "Tell me.  You watch those videos, which I know.  How much other experience do you have?  You've obviously never heard of these."  
  
"No...  they don't advertise them on the holonet."  Kylo assumed he would have been targeted during his very related searches, if they had.  
  
"No, there's no information on the holonet at all.  You can't get in unless you know someone else, in fact.  It's better if they stay hidden."  
  
Kylo turned back to him, wishing Hux could see the expression on his face.  "You mean it's better if they stay hidden from the First Order?  Because the New Republic wouldn't officially care."  
  
Hux snorted.  "Do you think the First Order would bother to raid a place like this?"  
  
"Imitating an officer of the First Order is a capitol offense."    
  
"True.  And we've shut down the manufacture of the counterfeit uniforms.  Sadly.  These are all homemade, stolen, or secondhand."  He gestured to the mirror, to the clientele of the club in general.  
  
Kylo paused.  "I don't understand that part of it."  He was somewhat uncomfortable with the idea that people dressed as Kylo Ren to solicit sex.  Was that really his image?  
  
"Oh.  Just the old joke about how junior officers can't keep away from the strange, I suppose."  
  
"That's..." That wasn't a joke.  Was it?  He still wasn't sure.  There was also something Hux wasn't telling him, he could feel Hux's reticence to share something more personal.  He decided to risk the question.  "That's not true, though.  Is it?"  
  
"No."  Hux tipped back more of his drink.  "Since they do such a thorough job of separating men and women in the academies, if you're desperate for heterosexual sex, some of the students seek out chiss, twi'leks, and zabraks.  They have the same genders as humans, so you can pretend.  But you damn well keep that from your classmates."  
  
He paused, then continued.  "There's the hazing ritual, of course.  That's probably where the stereotype comes from.  I don't know how old it is, but it was well-established by the time I was in the senior academy.  The hazing is really just the class getting drunk in a twi'lek or snivvian bar somewhere.  But it's considered deviant enough that much is made of it.  That if you're willing to do that, you'd likely do anything."  He paused again.  "So I guess that's what the uniforms mean, in here.  That you're up for anything."  
  
Kylo took a moment to absorb that, then turned to Hux.  His hands were clasped tightly around his glass, which was beginning to sweat through his gloves.  "You're up for anything."  
  
Hux turned to face him, his eyes seeking the visor of Kylo's helmet.  "You didn't answer my question.  How much experience do you have with this?  I had assumed it was more than videos, something from your mysterious past, but I'm beginning to suspect it's actually none."  
  
Kylo was unable to answer through the shame that tightened his chest and throat, so he sat in silence, still not sure what was going to happen tonight.  Absurdly, he tried to imagine what his mother would say about such a place.  If she knew her son was contemplating... that.  
  
But he wasn't her son anymore, that was Ben.  If he were Ben, he wouldn't be here.  He'd have a wife by now, a family, little Jedi children.  Ben was dead, and Kylo Ren was sitting here instead.  She wouldn't care what Kylo Ren did, would probably expect this of him.  
  
After waiting out his silence, Hux spoke again, turning back to the mirror over the bar.  "I brought you because I thought we had similar interests, and as I said, there aren't very many of us.  And it didn't seem like you had gone to any of the Officer's Clubs, so I thought you might appreciate an introduction."  Hux paused, and Kylo could feel him struggling with the personal admission again.  "I know what it's like to deny yourself the indulgence, so I thought I'd give you the opportunity.  It can be a difficult thing to let yourself do.  But perhaps I was wrong."  He turned his head to Kylo, and when Kylo was silent, he turned back to the mirror.  
  
"If you're worried about it, nobody cares what you like here, and what you do stays within the walls.  But if you don't think you'll enjoy yourself, feel free to leave.  Do whatever you like."  
  
Kylo felt something twist in his chest again.  The embarrassment he was reading from Hux didn't help.  Watching Hux in those videos, he had decided to trust Hux to take him to an undisclosed location for mysterious activities.  And Hux was...  Kylo didn't know him well, but this seemed fairly out of character for the persona Hux maintained on the _Finalizer_.  The difference between the uptight, precise, unknowable General on the _Finalizer_ and this man, who was admittedly still uptight, but more comfortable and open... it was strange.  Kylo rather liked it.  The Knights had invited him out, years ago, but that had felt like obligation.  This felt more like Hux was trying to share something with Kylo.  
  
Kylo looked down at his drink.  He hadn't taken more than a few sips of alcohol since he'd parted ways with Han and Lando.  He wished he could let it fortify him now.  
  
"I'll stay.  But I don't know what I want."  The admission made his chest tighten further.  He hated the feeling of showing a part of himself that he hadn't carefully crafted and revealed on his own terms.  It had been years since someone had bothered to ask him for it.  
  
Hux took another long drink before replying.  "That's fine.  I don't often know what I want, either.  I usually take my time to decide."  
  
Kylo clenched his jaw.  "That's not what I mean."  He forced the words out, hoping that honesty wouldn't earn him ridicule.  
  
Hux shrugged one shoulder, the corner of his mouth twitching up.  "I know.  You can watch, if you want.  I know you like that, at least."  
  
Kylo forgot to breathe for a moment, and he could feel his face going very red.  This hadn't occurred to him.  His dick twitched traitorously at the thought, and he glanced down to make sure his tunic was hiding it.  He looked back up at nothing in particular and exhaled.  Tried to calm himself.  But he still turned to Hux a little too eagerly.  
  
"Are you serious?"  
  
Hux shrugged again, finishing his drink and turning back to hail the bartender.  "Of course.  You think that bothers me?  You and many others have seen it before."  
  
Kylo turned away, turned back again, more than a little overcome, his erection becoming more of a problem.  "Do people... do you normally... let people watch?"  
  
Hux exhaled with a sound of amusement.  "No.  But I don't think anyone here would mind.  It takes a fair amount of inhibition to come here in the first place, and an open mind to accept the pleasures of another species.  An audience of one would bother very few patrons here."  The bartender returned, and Hux took another pull on his drink.  
  
Kylo glanced up at the mirror to watch a large, shiny black insectoid approach them.  It was massive, towering over both Hux and himself at their stools.  He couldn't see its eyes, but the cranium was elongated and it had a drooling, lipless mouth full of sharp teeth.  It wasn't wearing any type of garment.  
  
It approached Kylo and began to make a chittering noise, one large clawed hand jointed backwards falling on his shoulder.  Kylo looked from the hand back up to the creatures sort-of face, not liking the presumption.  
  
"Fuck off,"  Hux said clearly, without looking up from the bar.  
  
The creature removed its hand, then shifted over on its spindly legs to make a lower noise in Hux's direction.  
  
"I know what you're about.  Fuck off, you aren't going to snag us."  
  
The creature made a few low noises, then stalked off elsewhere in the bar.    
  
Kylo turned back to Hux.  "A personal problem?"  
  
Hux took a drink before answering.  "Some species aren't compatible with certain other species, in very dangerous ways.  That's one of them.  It knows what it can't have, but that one in particular likes to try anyway.  It can't really be turned away from the Clubs, since that's not our way.  But that's rule number one.  Stay away from that thing."    
  
Hux paused, then turned, giving him an appraising look.  "I suppose there are some humanoids it can have, though."  
  
Kylo dropped his gaze to his lap, again wondering if Hux only invited him because he believed Kylo was non-human.  But if Kylo could watch, he could leave his helmet on.  His erection persisted, and he looked from his lap back up to the mirror at the rest of the bar.  
  
"So we just wait here until something... approaches you?"  
  
"Hmm.  I can help the process along, I suppose."  Hux turned and surveyed the room.  Kylo watched as Hux caught the eye of something, raising his hand in acknowledgment and turning back to the bar.  "All right."  He hailed the bartender again.  "Another for the aqualish over there."  Hux grabbed his fresh drink and stood, walking across the dark room.  Ren followed him, bringing along his own untouched drink.  
  
They settled next to each other in a booth, facing a solitary aqualish.  It wasn't wearing a First Order uniform, just a plain, travel-stained tunic over gray pants.  It was humanoid, slightly broader but shorter than Kylo, with smooth green skin, a hairless, bulbous cranium, and a fringe of brown hair that ran, beard-like, over the edges of its jaw.  Two rounded pink tusks ran between its eyes and into its hair, obscuring the area where the mouth and nose was on a human.  It turned its head between them, appraising.  "I was told that if I was interested in human company, I should keep an eye out for the General."  It lisped slightly through its tusks, and its accent was one that Kylo couldn't place.  
  
Hux's mouth twitched.  "That's me."  
  
"They say you know the ropes."  
  
"I do."  
  
"Good."  He nodded.  "I'm looking for someone I don't have to teach."  
  
Hux gestured to Kylo.  "He needs to be taught, but just wants to watch."  
  
The bartender interrupted the conversation with the drink for the aqualish, a shallow dish with a thick yellow liquid in it.  It cradled the saucer in one large, hairy hand and lapped at it with its narrow pink tongue.  Hux took a drink from his own glass.  
  
It turned to Kylo, though Kylo couldn't tell if it was looking at him.  It has four solid, pupil-less black eyes, one large and one small on either side of its tusks.  "That's fine.  He can join later, if he wants.  I just don't want to go through the whole 'what goes where' song-and-dance."  
  
Hux nodded.  "It's been awhile since I've done that."  
  
The aqualish twitched the gloved fingers of its other hand on the tabletop.  It had two thick digits and a thumb.  "Good.  I know my way around a human plenty well."  It made a noise, and the curved tusks twitched slightly.  
  
Kylo wondered if that was all there was to it.  Holoporn with humans always made something of... mutual attraction.  Were Hux and the aqualish attracted to one another?  Kylo reached under the table and discreetly palmed his persisting erection.  Was he?  He reached out with the Force to read them.  They both had the kind of energy that settled in Kylo's gut and twisted there, making him want them to move on with whatever was going to happen.  But there nothing else.  Nothing at all.  
  
Kylo heard something shuffling to the table, and turned to look.  It was another large insectoid species that Kylo didn't recognize.  It was brown, and had a rounded back and six narrow, spindly limbs that curled out from what appeared to be a hard shell.  It walked upright, but looked uncomfortable doing so.  It was wearing a uniform, and a seam down the center of the shell in front was visible above the collar.  The uniform was elaborate, white with a cape and gold braids.  This insectoid had eyes and a face set into the top curve of its shell, mandibles that poked out between thin lips.  It glanced at Kylo, then turned to Hux.  
  
"Hear.  You.  General,"  It grunted in labored expulsions of broken Basic.  Hux turned to it, appraising.  The aqualish made a low whistling noise.  
  
"I'm the General."  
  
"Real?"  
  
Kylo snorted, which came out audibly through his voice synthesizer.  Hux kicked him under the table.  "As real as you get, in this place.  Can I help you?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
Hux nodded, then turned back to the aqualish.  "Do you mind?"  
  
The aqualish was staring at the new arrival, and Kylo could sense a kind of awe through the Force.  The aqualish didn't really have enough facial movement to read otherwise.  "No.  But friend, do you mind if I start things?"  The aqualish set the empty dish on the table, then pointed to Kylo with one of its hairy fingers.  "I'll go to this one after, but the General says he's a new kid.  I want him to see, first."  
  
The insectoid rubbed its forked hands together, making a clicking noise.  "Yes."  
  
"Then."  the aqualish nodded at Hux, then at Kylo.  "We're ready."  
  
Kylo slid out of the booth, and waited to follow Hux for whatever happened next, anxiety and want twisting in his chest and belly.  The party of four ducked behind a curtain that Kylo had vaguely noticed being used all evening.  
  
The curtain led to a dim hallway lit with plantlike lichen clinging to rough walls.  The aqualish turned to Hux.  "Do you have your own room here?"  
  
"No, not really.  But go to the one at the back, on the left."  
  
They entered, and Kylo closed the door behind them.  The room was simple, containing a bed, a chair, a solid endtable, and a holoset.  Another door led off to what Kylo assumed was a small restroom.  It was sparsely appointed, but comfortable.  Kylo stood awkwardly in the doorway as he watched the others.  The others begin shucking off their clothing.  
  
In the Major Fuxx vids, he'd never seen Hux take two different species at once.  There was the wookiee vid, of course, but that was a little different.  Not quite... intimate like this.  He thought of the holoporn he'd seen with the fake Officers taking more than one partner at once, and the revulsion he'd felt at the time.  Something about facing the situation in reality, specifically watching Hux do it, suddenly appealed to him in a very definite, unambiguous way.  
  
Hux stripped down to his black undershirt and pants, then removed his boots and socks and set them neatly against the wall.  He'd removed his hat and gloves, but left the mask on.  He glanced over at the aqualish, and reached to flip open the tabletop next to the bed.  It was actually a tall, narrow chest filled with things that Kylo couldn't begin to guess the uses for.  Hux pulled a bottle out and closed the table again, turning back to the aqualish.  
  
"Will you do this for me?"  
  
The aqualish, now shirtless, seemed to consider something.  "Not many humans appreciate it."  He wiggled his hairy, clawed, three-fingered hand in the air.  
  
"Most humans wouldn't, no."  
  
"I'll do it."  
  
Hux glanced at the insectoid that entered with them, then back.  "You don't mind that it's fast?"  
  
The aqualish turned its head to Kylo and nodded.  "I was hoping for fast, actually, but I can have some fun with the other one after we're done.  And I want to see that," he pointed to the corner, where the insectoid, divested of its white uniform, had positioned itself, "in action."  
  
The aqualish sat down in the chair, and Hux straddled its lap, undoing the belt and fly of his pants to free himself.  He tossed the belt aside.  He looked back up at the aqualish after a moment, and reached up two fingers to stroke the front of its tusks.  
  
"I've always wanted to fuck between these.  No one has ever let me."  
  
The aqualish made a snuffling noise, and something ran out from under the tusks.  Its lisp was worse when it spoke.  "That would be a little much.  If we cross paths again, I might be up for it."  
  
Hux handed the aqualish the bottle.  It accepted it with its gloved hand and dumped a generous amount in the hairy palm of the other.    
  
Kylo moved to the other side of the bed to get a better look between them.  He'd begun palming himself through his pants again, not sure if he should masturbate in front of these people or wait until later, still somewhat horrified that he was actually here and this was happening right in front of him, in real life.  He glanced over at the insectiod, who was hunched and still in the corner on two of its legs, seeming to stare at the pair without seeing them.  
  
Kylo turned back to Hux and watched the aqualish's hand drop into Hux's pants and begin palming him roughly.  Kylo winced in sympathy, but Hux didn't seem to be reacting to it.  There was no discernible expression on his face below the mask.  Lube began to dampen the front of his pants.  Hux reached over with both hands and pulled the glove off the aqualish' other hand.  Underneath, the flesh of the hand was smooth and pale, with no shaggy hair to match the other.  The aqualish closed its lower, smaller set of black eyes, and Kylo could see a ripple of air pass through the hair on its face.  
  
Its fingers were swollen, and its hand was slick and shiny under the glove.  Two rows of tiny black holes lined either side of the long fingers, and as Kylo watched, droplets of clear fluid pushed out at random.  Hux bent down and began lathing his tongue between the digits, holding the wrist in one hand.  The aqualish made a growling noise.  
  
Hux wiped some of the lube from the aqualish's hairy palm, and Kylo saw Hux's erection as the aqualish paused its strokes.  Hux brought his fingers up and began running them up and down the aqualish's tusks.  He continued to massage the tusks as his attention shifted and he dropped his mouth down onto the middle finger of its other hand, taking it in and pulling back slowly.  He opened his mouth and brought his tongue along one of the rows of holes, trailing saliva and fluid between his lips and the digit.    
  
Meanwhile, the aqualish was still roughly stroking Hux.  It was going too fast, pounding its fist into Hux's crotch.  Kylo sucked in a rough breath and began to undo the front of his pants.  Kylo was also here, and watching, and felt free in a way that was strange, but good.  
  
Hux reached down to still the aqualish's fist, and began to fuck himself up into its palm, his hips shifting back and forth in a slower pace than the aqualish had been using.  Hux was muttering very softly in the Outer Rim patois around the middle digit of the aqualish's other hand as he came up for air.  It was something Kylo wouldn't normally be able to hear in the Major Fuxx holoporn.  He reveled in the very small, intimate detail, and began to stroke himself dry with his glove on, very roughly, his fingers periodically casting over the leaking end of his own dick to slick himself enough to continue.  It hurt, but not as much as bringing himself off over and over again consecutively had.  He'd taught himself to set the pain aside, and he did it now, not wanting to go over and get the lube, not even wanting to take the time to remove his glove.  He'd never done this with his helmet on before, and he could feel the heat of his breath gathering around his face, sweat beginning to pool along his hairline and the back of his neck.  
  
Hux was bouncing on the aqualish's lap, fucking himself up into its fist more energetically.  The aqualish moved its other hand above Hux's head and began to jab two of its fingers down into Hux's throat, Hux moaning brokenly between thrusts.  One of Hux's hands was on the aqualish's shoulder, the other had worked itself around its tusks.  His fingers begin to probe delicately between them, pulling them apart.  The growling from the aqualish came brokenly now, and Hux made a fist around one of the tusks, his thumb massaging the skin along the top.  
  
The aqualish jerked bodily, and Hux jerked with it, pulling himself up and latching his lips around the fingers, sucking, milking them.  After a moment, he pulled off and stared into the aqualish's face.  All four eyes had opened, though Kylo couldn't tell where they were looking.  
  
Unexpectedly, Hux spat a mouthful of a thick, viscous green fluid directly into the aqualish's face, rubbing the back of his hand across his mouth afterwards.  The aqualish closed its eyes and shook its head vigorously, droplets of the liquid flying off to slap wetly nearby.  
  
That was all Kylo needed.  He came into the fist of his glove, clamping down on a moan, not wanting to draw attention to himself.  
  
The aqualish made a low growling noise and squeezed Hux's cock, which was still very hard, and throbbed under the ministration.  Apparently Hux hadn't finished.  Kylo blinked, not sure how that hadn't happened.  
  
"Do you want to finish up here, or are you going to save yourself?"  
  
Hux looked down and seemed to consider, reaching one hand up to idly stroke the tusks of the aqualish.  "No," he answered, with some regret Kylo sensed through the broken haze of his own satisfaction.  "I'll save it for that one.  Do you mind?"  Hux looked back up into the aqualish's face.  
  
"No.  In fact, I'm eager to see this.  I've only heard about it before."  The aqualish tipped its head over to the insectoid in the corner, and Hux spun around to regard it.  He turned back to the aqualish, putting a hand to its bicep and squeezing fondly before standing up and walking over to the insectoid, erection clearly visible through the fly of his pants.  He removed his mask and discarded it on the ground along the way.  Odd.  Kylo wondered why he was showing his face now.  He'd have to ask later.  
  
The aqualish stood and went to Kylo.  "You want to see this too?"  
  
Kylo watched as Hux ran his finger down the seam in the center of the insectoid's chest.  "I... don't know what this is?"  
  
The aqualish turned to look at him with its four black eyes, a puff of air blowing through the damp hair on its face.  It was wearing pants, but nothing else.  "It's a scaramaia.  It's one of the old ones."  
  
"Did Koz tell you about me?"  Hux asked the scaramaia, putting his other hand to its lips and running his fingers along the mandibles.  The scaramaia closed its eyes and shuddered.  Hux's fingers continued to work the center seam, which was beginning to widen slightly and glisten.  
  
"Yes.  General does this before."  
  
"Three times."  
  
Kylo used the Force to read awe and respect from the aqualish and Hux, but he couldn't read the scaramaia.  Before he could decide how to ask the aqualish to explain further, it turned back to spare him the embarrassment.  
  
"Scaramaia that survive to adulthood live over a thousand years."  
  
"So... it's old?"  Kylo searched for the right word.  "Venerable?"  
  
Hux was now working both hands along the center seam, which had parted slightly down the length.  He shoved one hand forcibly inside, and it disappeared up to the elbow.  The other hand continued to play along the outside.  It was opening from what would be the neck to the groin on a humanoid, though Kylo wasn't sure what constituted those parts on a scaramaia.  
  
"Hm.  Just watch.  This isn't something that happens everyday."  
  
Hux was rubbing both hands inside the carapace now, or what Kylo thought of as the carapace.  One was still submerged to the elbow, and the fingertips of the other were wrapped inside, stroking along both edges.  The seam parted a bit further, and Hux jerked, swinging both sides open all the way with a disconcerting cracking noise.    
  
The upper limbs of the scaramaia detached and tumbled to the floor, but the open carapace revealed eight more many-jointed limbs, four along each side of its chest.  The inside appeared to be the living organs of the creature, purple and black viscera crammed tightly together, though Kylo couldn't identify what any of it was.  
  
Hux stepped into the carapace, pushing his toes into the softness at the bottom and hanging his heels over the lower edge.  Clear fluid pooled at his feet, then began dribbling off the bottom, around and below where the saramaia's feet were planted on the floor.    
  
The interior limbs wrapped around Hux's arms and legs, and Kylo jumped as the carapace slammed shut over Hux's back with a slapping noise.  Hux was too large to close all the way inside.  His back and shoulders were visible above the top of the carapace, and his back could be seen through the seam, but it gripped him with enough force to crush him far inside the scaramaia.  The scaramaia fell forward and began to convulse on the floor.  
  
The aqualish rushed forward, flipping the scaramaia onto its round brown back.  It was still jerking, and Hux appeared to be struggling inside.  Kylo was confused.  Had something gone wrong, or was this supposed to happen?  
  
Hux arched his back, and with another cracking noise, the carapace appeared to relinquish its tight grip on Hux.  Hux pushed himself up slightly with one hand and began working something inside the viscera that Kylo couldn't see.  With the other, he began stroking the creature around the mandibles and mouth again, his hand coated in a thin, clear fluid.  Kylo couldn't see its eyes.  He winced when he realized Hux was kneeling in its organs, or what Kylo took to be its organs.  Maybe they weren't.  
  
Hux was muttering to it in the patois again, audible but unintelligible to Kylo.  Genuine fondness seemed to be rolling off Hux, which was surprising.  Hux had shared an acute and mutual lust with the aqualish.  The affection here seemed out of place in general for Hux, and was particularly incongruous with the current bizarre encounter.  Maybe Hux was more attracted to insectoids?    
  
As Kylo watched, Hux's manner turned increasingly mellow.  He hushed and soothed the scaramaia, and the expression on his face was gentle, almost beatific.  Kylo was transfixed.  
  
Hux's other arm continued to work inside the creature, somewhere around what would be the navel on a human.  Abruptly, at odds with the slow pace, he yanked something y-shaped out from within the organs.  Clear liquid gushed up in the wake of his hand.  Hux took the piece of the scaramaia and moved it up closer to the area of its neck, reaching back down into the cavity with it.    
  
The scaramaia's internal appendages were all in motion along their many joints, moving from Hux's arms and legs to his back, digging in, drawing blood along eight perfect lines.  The blood ran slowly down Hux's back.  Hux didn't react, didn't even seem to notice.  His focus seemed wholly to be on soothing the scaramaia.  He switched from the patois back to Basic to speak to it.  
  
"Okay.  I'm going to do it now.  Yes?"  
  
The creature looked up at Hux.  "Yes," it repeated back, closing its eyes.  
  
Hux yanked again, this time drawing something soft and black out of the chest cavity.  The limbs flexed straight, and the front panels of the carapace fell completely open.  The scaramaia juddered and went still underneath Hux.  
  
Hux's expression cleared as he stared impassively at the scaramaia's inert face for a few moments.  He patted the side of its mouth with one hand, then rocked back on his knees and stood up, the organs audibly straining under his weight.  He stepped out of the carapace, his pants soaked and dripping with the clear fluid, and he ran a hand wetly through his red hair, slicking it and making it glisten in the low light of the small room.  He looked at the aqualish, then at Kylo.  He looked down at the black viscera in his hand, and began to eat it.  
  
"I never thought I'd see that.  A little less to it than I thought," the aqualish said, when Kylo was too baffled to respond.  
  
"You have to know where they want to be taken."  
  
"Did you see someone else with one first, or did your first show you?"  
  
Hux grimaced.  "The first showed me.  I regret it, in retrospect.  They shouldn't have to do that."  He glanced at the door, then back to the aqualish.  "I'll have to tip Koz again.  I wonder how long it waited for me."  
  
Kylo, latching on to one coherent question, asked it.  "Can't you ask it when it gets back up?"  
  
Both Hux and the aqualish turned to him.  "It's not getting back up," the aqualish explained, matter-of-factly.  
  
Kylo blinked behind his mask.  "What?"  
  
Hux sat down on the bed, staring at the carapace and swallowing the last of whatever he had eaten.  "They come here to die.  Their own kind isn't really equipped to do it like humanoids.  The Officer's Clubs and mixed-species bars are a place for the scaramaia to come for mercy."  
  
"What?"  
  
Hux turned to say something else, but was interrupted by a cracking noise from the carapace.  A pool of black seethed out from underneath the scaramaia's dome-shaped back.  It was a living puddle that crawled up into the carapace.  As Kylo watched, the remains of the scaramaia diminished and vanished into whatever the living puddle was.  The puddle broke up, and Kylo saw distinct small, black, many-legged creatures that he wouldn't have recognized as a sentient species.  They ran along the walls and ceiling, up over the bed, and eventually under the crack of the door.  
  
All three watched in silence as the last one skittered around the room, then found its way out.  There was nothing left of the scaramaia in the room except a damp spot on the floor and the huge, crumpled white uniform near the the door.  
  
Hux turned back to Kylo.  "When they fill like that, I'm under the impression they are in excruciating pain, and need to end their life.  So they come here."  
  
Kylo stared at Hux, then back at the door, still speechless and confused.  
  
"There's more in there than I thought," the aqualish offered, rather clinically.  "With so few of them roaming the galaxy, I'm surprised."  
  
"Not very many survive to adulthood and sentience."  Hux laid back down on the bed, his erection still visible through his open pants.  He stroked it absently, then glanced at Kylo.  "Do you want to try anything?"  He turned back to the aqualish.  "Are you up for more, or are you finished for the night?"  
  
The aqualish looked between them and made a low snorting noise.  "I'm always up for more when I come here.  One human's as good as another, if Kylo Ren is up for it."  
  
Kylo swallowed and felt something tighten inside.  He still wasn't certain that he wanted to participate.  He shuffled tentatively, dread filling him with uncertainty about what to say or do.  Kylo Ren wouldn't run in the middle of this situation, but he wanted to.  Badly.  
  
Hux sat up.  "You heard him.  He doesn't care which of us it is."    
  
Kylo realized, then, that the aqualish referred to him as a human.  He wondered how astute aqualish were at picking out species, and whether he could continue to pretend to be non-human in front of Hux.  The tight, sinking feeling got worse when he realized Hux had probably seen his very human dick earlier, which he'd tucked back into his pants when he was more fascinated than aroused by the scaramaia.  
  
When his silence continued, Hux cocked his head.  "You can watch again, it's okay.  Neither of us care."  He gestured to the pile of white uniform.  "There are three different types of scaramaia.  This wasn't one that was compatible with human sexuality, so I can keep going."  
  
Kylo shook his head slightly.  He _wanted_ , but he didn't know what, and he was unable to articulate his need.  He felt balanced on a precipice, as if he was about to make an important decision that he could never take back.  
  
Hux raised himself on the bed.  "Come here," he ordered in his imperial accent in a low, stern voice, looking straight into Kylo's visor.  Kylo was too terrified and overwhelmed to read his emotions with the Force, but the thing inside him that _wanted_ did as Hux ordered.  He knelt on the bed near Hux's reclining form.  
  
Hux reached up with one hand to undo the latches of Kylo's helmet and Kylo let him, frozen with indecision, need, confusion, dread.  When Hux lifted the helmet and mask away and met Kylo's naked gaze for the first time, he sucked in a breath.  Kylo saw a flash of recognition, quickly smothered.  The tentative emotions roiling through him were quickly quashed, replaced with anger and frustration and the need to get out, because that's probably what Ben would do, and that's who Hux had seen.  He rolled over quickly and swung his legs to the floor, but froze when Hux put a restraining hand on his shoulder.  
  
"No.  It's fine.  I told you, no one here cares who you are."  
  
Kylo didn't turn around.  He knew Hux only saw Ben.  He felt like Ben.   Weak.  Like he'd left himself open to something bad.  Something he shouldn't have been doing.  He should have... known.  Should have known better than to try this, that Kylo Ren didn't have friends or acquaintances, that Kylo Ren didn't do anything but missions and meditiation, and that there wasn't anything for Kylo Ren other than the holoporn, and fuck if he hadn't ruined that for himself now-  
  
He was beginning to get more angry, and he could feel it on his face, no longer concealed by the helmet.  Hux sat alongside him and put a palm against his hot, damp cheek, turning his face back towards him.  He still had the neutral, arrogant expression.  He looked the same.  He looked at Ben the same way he looked at Kylo Ren.  Some of the anger slipped away.  
  
"Why don't we do it together?"  Hux glanced over Kylo's shoulder at the aqualish.  "Are you okay with that?"  
  
Kylo didn't turn around to see the aqualish.  He continued to stare into Hux's face, hypnotized, afraid suddenly that something terrible would happen if he looked away.  He also felt sure something terrible would happen if he kept looking, but he thought he'd prefer that to whatever it would mean to get up and walk away.  
  
The aqualish didn't answer at first, then asked a considered question.  "How are you thinking?"  
  
Hux looked back into Ren's eyes.  "He can fuck me, and you can try his mouth."  He lowered his hand from Kylo's face.  "Is that okay with you?  Is it too much?  I can take both, if you want.  Or you can watch again.  But I think you might like it."  
  
Kylo nodded, and was sure he would agree with anything Hux asked him, in this moment.  Hux nodded back, and Kylo heard the aqualish consent.  Hux broke their eye contact first.  "Why don't you get your clothes off, then.  I'll take off my pants and get ready."  
  
Kylo stood, keeping his eye on Hux, who looked around Kylo to the aqualish as he pulled off his soaked pants.  "Do you want to get naked, too?"  
  
"No."  The aqualish approached and stood next to the bed.  Kylo could feel him staring as he undressed.    
  
He told himself that Kylo Ren could do this, Kylo Ren could be calm, channel confusion and nervousness and the vague sick feeling in his stomach to a strong communion with the Force, and he would use it to pleasure these two.  So Kylo tried.  He closed his eyes and sat on the bed to remove his boots, trying to feel the Force, trying to use this as a form of meditation, telling himself this was a step closer to the person he should be.  Someone who knew how to handle himself in this situation.  
  
When he opened his eyes, Hux was lying on his back, legs spread apart, with two fingers working into his ass.  Kylo quickly closed his eyes again, feeling his control slipping away as his usual feelings of lust at the sight of Hux naked washed over him.  He clenched his teeth.  He felt too present in the situation to remove himself.  The dread and panic began rising again.  
  
"Hey."  He felt a hand on his thigh.  He opened his eyes, and looked into Hux's impassive face.  "Leave, if you need to."  He had a moment to wonder if Hux could read his mind before Hux continued.  "We all have off nights.  You can watch, or you can go back to the ship.  It's okay.  Nobody here cares.  Nobody out there will know."  
  
"I don't want to fuck someone who's scared shitless," the aqualish contributed, and this gave Kylo the nerve he needed.  
  
"No.  I want to.  Tell me what I need to do."  
  
Hux raised an eyebrow and withdrew his palm.  "Well, arousal would help.  Your dick should probably be hard for this."  He looked up at the aqualish.  "Do you want to start without him?"  He looked back to Kylo.  "Join in whenever you'd like."  
  
Hux pivoted so that he was on his back, with his legs dangling from the side of the bed.  The aqualish positioned itself between his legs and hooked them over its shoulders with the clawed hand.  It reached for the bottle of lube.  
  
"You up for this, General?"  
  
"Yes."  Hux closed his eyes and flexed his hips up.  The aqualish turned its head to the bottle, and dumped the lube into its hairy, clawed hand.  The claws were blunted, rather than sharp.  It slid one digit slowly into Hux's ass, and something inside Kylo clenched.  Kylo sighed in relief when he felt his cock twitch and begin to harden.  Tentatively, he took the bottle of lubricant from the aqualish, who relinquished it without comment, and began stroking himself.  
  
Hux moaned as the Aqualish fished one finger in and out of his ass.  Kylo stood next to it and watched as it slowly maneuvered in and out, careful not to snag its claw on the edge of Hux's dripping hole.  
  
"You saw what happened earlier, yes?"  The aqualish asked casually as Hux began muttering in the patois again.  
  
Kylo jumped, startled to be addressed while masturbating, forgetting the arrangement he had agreed to.  He wasn't sure how to answer for a moment, but of course he had seen it.  "Yes."  
  
"Do you want to try sucking on my fingers while I keep going on him?"  
  
Kylo stilled his hand as he considered it.  The aqualish jerked hard inside Hux, and Hux cursed loudly.  Kylo licked his lips.  The thought of being connected while the act was happening was suddenly appealing.    
  
"Yes," he answered, in barely more than a whisper.  
  
The aqualish held its other hand up, and Kylo took it gently by the wrist, guiding it to his lips and closing his eyes.  He licked tentatively, tasting the dampness of its fingers, which were leaking the clear fluid from the tiny pinprick holes again.  There wasn't a flavor, and he put one into his mouth, sucking and pulling it back out.  He opened his eyes and looked at Hux, who was flexing his hips onto the aqualish.  He remembered that the hand he was tasting now had been in Hux's mouth, and he sucked it deeper.  The aqualish made a low, nonverbal noise, and he could see the hair around the bottom of its head sucking in and out.  
  
He jerked more confidently with one hand while he guided the aqualish's digits into his mouth with the other.  The aqualish gently corrected him, switching each of the digits out, and occasionally inserting two at once.  He began to push deeper, but Kylo gagged and pulled away.  The aqualish made a low noise of approval, and Kylo squeezed himself, stepping away, slightly alarmed.  
  
"You."  Kylo glanced to Hux's face to find he had quieted and that he was staring at Kylo.  "Come over here and use that on me.  We'll all be getting something we'd rather have that way."  
  
Kylo's hand stilled.  His mouth had gone dry again.  He was very, painfully hard, and his dick was throbbing in his hand.  He swallowed.  
  
His dick in Hux's ass.  He wanted to.  Very, very badly.  A mad thought crossed his mind - maybe if he was putting something in Hux's ass, he would understand why it felt good?  It had never occurred to him to try it this way.  He had never watched anything with two human men having sex before.  
  
"General," the aqualish admonished softly.  "I thought you were a fan of my claws."  
  
"I am."  Hux turned and the corner of his mouth pulled up.  "But quite frankly, it's hard to get off that way knowing there's something more suited to the task right here, and that you can use it too."  
  
The aqualish made another low, amused sound, and pulled its fingers out as Hux pulled his legs off its shoulders.  He flipped around, kneeling on the bed facedown, his back arched, his ass in the air.  
  
"You don't have to.  You can finish with the aqualish, if you want.  I can take care of myself."  Hux made a muffled noise into the mattress.  "We'll just be switching that way."  
  
"Yes,"  Kylo agreed with a dry, harsh croak.  It took him two tries to push the words past his lips.  He stepped up, tentatively putting one hand on Hux's hip.  Hux's skin was hot to the touch, and this close, Kylo could see that it was freckled and marred all over with shiny red and pale patches of scar tissue, some ropy and twisting across his back and sides.  The eight long, deep scratches, blood dried in thick rivulets around them, decorated his back.  The scars were thick, thin, long, short, broad, and one was singed blackly into his lower back, in the shape of a triangle.  Kylo could see the scars twisting down over Hux's biceps and forearms, the lacerations tracing over his thighs.  He ran his hand down one thigh, transfixed, then focused back on Hux's ass.  
  
He parted it with one hand, and pushed himself tentatively to the opening.  He didn't know how to ask for this.  He closed his eyes.  A thousand thoughts and feelings and reactions were swirling through his head, and he wasn't sure how to sort them out, how to act on them.  He reached for and found the Force, and pushed everything inside his head into his communion, reached his mind out to Hux and the aqualish.  He found them, and suddenly he was connected and it was beautiful, the most beautiful thing he'd ever felt in his life.  He could feel them both wanting, and the specific ways that they wanted, and how Kylo fit into that.  For the first time, he felt connected to other beings.  
  
He pushed his pure joy into both, and Hux thrust backwards, pushing himself onto Kylo, who hadn't yet breached him.  Kylo thrust forward further and moaned aloud as he felt the tightness of Hux clutch him, warm and solid and perfect.  So much better than his own hand.  He wished fervently that he'd done this before, cursed himself for missing out on a lifetime of this perfect feeling.  He closed his eyes.  
  
The aqualish wrapped one arm around his waist, and he opened his mouth.  Both digits went back in, and he thrust forward and Hux thrust back as the aqualish thrust down into his throat, and he choked and spasmed and so did Hux, and it took everything he had not to come into Hux.  He wasn't sure if he was supposed to, wasn't sure if he could help it.  Couldn't ask.  His mouth was full.  All he could feel from Hux and the aqualish was lust and want, and it felt like he could do anything and it would be right.  
  
Kylo and Hux and the aqualish all made a noise, and all thrust again.  And again, and again.  It was the most powerful thing Kylo had ever been a part of, and he could feel the shock and emotion, the strong lust, from the other two.  He took it and pushed it back into them, and they kept going.  Kylo tried to keep his own emotion in check, sent his physical sensation to the place he'd taught himself after he'd tried to last and keep going on those nights by himself.  He sent his feelings into the Force, and the feeling of connection with the other two only grew stronger.  Lovely.  He thrust again and again.  
  
When he could feel the other two peaking, he let himself go inside Hux, and he could feel Hux clench around him, and the aqualish's grip tighten around his waist as it brought its face to his neck, rubbed its tusks there, and shoved its fingers down as far as they would go, and he felt it let go down his throat, and he took what it had to give as he spilled into Hux and Hux spilled into the sheets.  He closed his eyes and shut himself off to everything, sent his mind inward, and found a communion with himself that he hadn't had before.  He felt right.  He didn't need to tell himself who to be, in this moment.  For the first time, it was just him, and that was the only person that mattered.  
  
Saliva and some of the green fluid was leaking from the corner of his aching lips and jaw.  The aqualish was gasping, and so was Hux, and Kylo wasn't sure how much longer he could remain standing.  The aqualish pulled away first, sitting down on the bed and putting its head in its hands.  Hux collapsed and Kylo pulled out, still half-hard, and laid on his back next to him.  None of them spoke for several minutes.  
  
"That," said the aqualish, "was the best sex I've ever had.  You pair are something special."  
  
"That's why they call me the General," Hux managed, muffled, from his facedown position on the bed.  
  
The aqualish made another amused noise.  "Some reputation.  I know I'll be telling anyone that wants to know."  
  
Kylo licked at his face, trying to catch the saliva and what he could reach of the aqualish's green fluid.  It had a fruity taste that Kylo found unsettling, but he would certainly do it again.  Taste was another thing you couldn't get from the holovids.  
  
"I'll tell folks there's a Kylo Ren out there that knows what he's doing, too.  You two are a regular First Order pair.  The genuine General Hux and Kylo Ren."  
  
Had Kylo been in his right mind, rather than a hazy state where everything seemed fine and these two were the best beings in the galaxy, this may have alarmed him.  Presently, he was happy that the aqualish had somehow found this out about them based solely on sexual congress.  
  
Hux snorted into the bed.  "You caught us."  
  
The aqualish made another amused noise, then began reaching for its clothes.  "I came here to have a good time, and I'm leaving well-pleased."  
  
"Tell your friends."  Hux rolled on his side, back facing Kylo, and looked at the aqualish as it got dressed.  Kylo took in the sight of Hux's scarred, bloody back.  He thought about running his palm down the knobs of his spine.  Thought better of it.  
  
Another thought occurred to him, and he looked up at the aqualish.  "Do you have a name?"  
  
The aqualish regarded him with its four black eyes.  "Do any of us?  Call me the traveler."  
  
"Certainly," Hux cut in smoothly.  "Traveling out tonight, then?"  
  
"Back to my ship.  This was just a stopover.  It's been awhile since I'd been to an Officer's Club."  He finished getting dressed.    
  
Hux stood and went to it, running his fingers through the fur around its tusks, teasing them again.  It put a hand on Hux's ass.  The corner of Hux's mouth twitched up.  "It was fun."  
  
"Indeed.  Perhaps we'll meet again."  The Traveler took a step back, and nodded at Hux.  "General."  It turned slightly and addressed Kylo, nodding in his direction.  "Kylo Ren."    
  
Kylo, tired, touched the fingers of one hand to the shoulder of the other in an unconscious gesture that made him tense and cross both arms when he caught himself.  He hadn't done it since he was Ben.  He went cold all over, thinking that perhaps he'd let too much of Ben out tonight.  
  
The Traveler made a low noise.  "Right, then.  You two go on fighting the good fight."  It blinked its four eyes, one after the other, then turned and left the room.  
  
When the door closed, Hux turned to Kylo, his face and emotions radiating annoyance, tinged with anger.  "Please tell me I did not just get fucked by Ben Solo."  
  
Kylo looked away from Hux, climbed up the bed to the pillow and covered himself in the blanket.  "Ben Solo is dead.  I'm not him."  
  
"I heard Ben Solo was dead."  Hux's voice was laced with sarcasm.  "But you look an awful fucking lot like him, and you just used a Resistance salute."  
  
"I... didn't."  He had.  He wasn't going to admit it.  He wanted to pull the blankets up over his head and disappear.  His communion with himself evaporated abruptly with the realization that Ben was going to ruin everything again.  
  
"You did."  He felt Hux settle onto the edge of the bed.  "I can't fucking believe it."  He paused, then continued in a tone that dripped anger and suspicion.  "I actually almost don't.  It's far more likely that you defeated the real Kylo Ren, then came back to the Finalizer in his place.  Except for the part where you sit in your room and jerk to xeno porn all night.  Then again, I suppose even heroes of the Resistance have their naughty secrets.  I certainly do."  He paused again.  "But if you were actually Ben Solo on an undercover mission, you wouldn't have come to a fucking Officer's Club with me and let me take off your mask."  He sounded more incredulous now.  
  
Kylo threw off the blanket, sitting up, finally frustrated enough to answer, to face Hux.  "Ben Solo is dead.  I am Kylo Ren.  I work with you.  I spend my life trying to crush the Resistance and hunt down the remaining Force users in the galaxy.  I am _not_ Ben Solo."  
  
Part of him wanted to hurt Hux again, to choke him to the edge of consciousness.  He was naked now, they both were, and Hux wouldn't be able to stop him.  He was weak here, in this room with Kylo.  Kylo was suddenly too angry to control himself, to reach out to see what Hux was feeling.  
  
Hux snorted, his expression turning harder and more arrogant.  He ignored Kylo's protests.  "All those missions, that zeal to run down and execute any and all traitors.  And you're one of the biggest traitors in the galaxy.  Why should I trust anything you say?"  
  
"Because I'm not Ben Solo!"  Kylo put his hands over his face, warring with himself.  He was increasingly certain he wasn't going to be able to hurt Hux, now or ever, after sharing the experience they just had.  Absurdly, he wondered if his come was still inside Hux.  
  
Kylo put his hands down when a more relevant thought occurred to him.  "Why do you even know what Ben Solo looks like?"  Kylo paused, unsure how to phrase this next part.  "He wasn't... he didn't show up for a lot of those... ceremonies and things.  Where they awarded medals.  For his service.  When he was young."  Which was maybe the wrong thing to say, because Ben Solo hadn't made it past the age of 15, so he had never really been _young_.  Which was another point.  "And Ben Solo died when he was 15.  I can't resemble him that much anymore."  He winced, hoping that didn't sound like an admission.  
  
Hux snorted.  "True, he wasn't often in public.  But there were still plenty of holos of his face, weren't there?  And he was always in the news with his parents when he was younger.  You seem fairly knowledgeable about how often he appeared in holos for not being him."  
  
"You're seem fairly knowledgeable yourself."  Kylo frowned, twisting his hands in his lap.  "You grew up in the Outer Rim."  Hux was still using his Outer Rim accent.  
  
The scorn and suspicion cleared from Hux's face, and he stared with his usual blank arrogance.  "Nice catch," he replied, with his usual Imperial cadence.  "I did grow up there.  Most of the First Order officers did."  
  
"There couldn't have been a lot of coverage about... about Ben Solo out there.  Or the Resistance, unless they were winning or losing."  
  
Hux turned away from him and stood.  He walked over to the chest and rummaged, not looking at Kylo.  "We had the holonet.  We could see whatever we wanted," he muttered, bent over inside the chest.  
  
Kylo's thoughts were starting to settle, and he could feel... a twinge of embarrassment from Hux.  He leaned forward on the bed, more interested.  "And you looked up Ben Solo on the holonet?"  
  
"What did you use the holonet for?  I can't tell, because your usage history on the _Finalizer_ is only for porn, me, and information on what officers do on their time off."  
  
Kylo recoiled as if struck, but he reined in his anger.  He told himself he was winning this argument.  He decided to be insistent.  "You looked up Ben Solo on the holonet."  
  
"Of course I looked up Ben Solo on the holonet!"  Hux stood up straight, a cigarra in his mouth.  He lit it with something in the other hand that Kylo couldn't see, and tossed it back in the bin next to the bed.  "Ben Solo was who any kid wanted to be.  Famous parents.  Born leader.  And a Jedi magician and warrior."  Hux exhaled, looking angry again.  He turned back away from Kylo.  "The Outer Rim... wasn't great.  From where we were sitting, the First Order didn't have a lot to offer us."  He inhaled, held it, and exhaled again.  "I'm trying to do better," he muttered, almost too quiet for Kylo to hear.  
  
"Ben Solo was... who you wanted to be?"  This confused Kylo.  Ben Solo had been weak.  Foolish.  Taken in by the lies of his parents, and of the Rebellion.  He saw the New Republic crumble, fracture and split off into what became the First Order.  He saw the New Republic government didn't have any power, didn't like each other, and no group was actually interested in helping anyone but themselves.  They dressed themselves in a cloak of righteousness and sent Kylo and Luke and the other students off on diplomatic missions, or to stop criminal activity, and it was all so petty, and not for the reasons they told him, and even his mother and uncle had lied to him...  
  
He put his head in his hands again.  This still wasn't a good path to go down.  Still too fresh, too much fury..  He glanced at the lightsaber on the floor and wondered if he could go out into Vena Cal and kill something.  He didn't wonder, he knew he could.  He was debating whether he should, and maybe steal a shuttle afterwards.  He still sensed embarrassment from Hux, and he was still upset that Ben had ruined something good in his life yet again.  Only Ben would believe there was something good for him in others.  There wasn't.  
  
Hux was quiet for a few moments after Kylo's question, but eventually answered.  "Mmm.  Every kid wanted to be Ben Solo."  
  
"They would have been disappointed."  
  
"I don't know about that."  
  
This made Kylo look up, and he saw Hux had turned to face him again, naked, covered in fluids, and still smoking the cigarra.   Kylo scowled.  "Ben Solo is dead for a reason."  
  
"I suppose that's true."  Hux exhaled through his nose, amusement flashing across his face for a brief moment.  "The more I learn about you, the more I think you might be the most surprising person I've ever met."  
  
Kylo opened his mouth, then closed it.  He wasn't sure how to respond to that.  Anxiety coiled through him.  He couldn't remember the last time someone complimented him.  
  
Then he did.  It had been Hux, when he reported back after a mission.  
  
Then he wondered if he really was being complimented.  He turned away, face burning.  Nobody complimented Ben.  And Kylo Ren didn't need them.  
  
"You're being rather candid," he pushed out, hoping to turn the conversation back around, though Hux seemed good at not talking about himself.  
  
"Yes, I suppose."  Hux sat on the edge of the bed.  Kylo was still faced away, not wanting Hux to see him blush.  "I get like this after sex."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
When Hux was silent, Kylo turned back around to see that Hux was facing the wall, in profile, not looking at him.  The ash burned at the tip of the cigarra, and Hux tapped it onto the floor.  "Just that it tends to relax my opinions of others,"  he said, after a long pause.  "It's not mattered before tonight.  I don't usually plan on seeing my partners again."  
  
Kylo sat up, clasping his hands in his lap on top of the sheet.  He looked down.  "Can I ask you something?"  
  
"You can.  That doesn't mean I'll answer you."  
  
"Why do you do this?  The holovids, and the club, and... this, in general."  
  
Hux was quiet for a long time, long enough that Kylo thought he might not reply.  He wasn't picking up any emotion in particular from Hux right now.  He smoked the rest of the cigarette in silence, tossing the butt into the corner.  
  
"When I was young, I obsessed over things I couldn't have.  The xenophobic policies of the Empire and First Order made relationships with other species so far-fetched and deviant that it became my primary obsession.  The more I fantasized about other species, the less appeal human relationships held for me.  I continued to forbid myself, but denial made me miserable.  I eventually realized denying myself was pointless.  Pleasure was the first of the things I allowed myself."  Hux shrugged.  "I indulged rather over-much at first, but I learned a lot, and I never saw the point in denying myself in that way again."  
  
Kylo was quiet after this rather personal admission.  Something in him began to relate to it, but he shut down that line of thinking, lest he make himself depressed.  Rather, he tried to think of something similar to share with Hux in turn, but all he could think of was Ben, and he didn't want to ruin the moment with Ben.  
  
A question occurred to him, and he reddened, not sure if he could bring himself to ask.  But he still felt a bit of the post-coital lightheadedness, even after the awkward interlude, and it made him bolder.  "When was the last time you had sex with a human?"  
  
Hux snorted again.  Kylo felt his amusement.  "Not since I was in school."  
  
"Really?"  He looked up.  Hux turned to look at him, raising his eyebrows.  
  
"When was the last time you did?"  
  
Kylo turned away, silent.  
  
"I thought so."  
  
When Kylo stayed silent and turned away, Hux persisted.  
  
"What made you watch those videos?"  
  
Kylo turned back to face his lap, not sure how to answer.  He decided to match Hux's honesty.  "I tried everything.  That was the only thing for me."  
  
"What was everything?"  
  
Kylo, again, found himself not wanting to admit to any of this.  But the curiousity was readable from Hux, and Hux's own candor again baited him.  "Just... videos.  Of human men and women, I suppose.  I didn't..."  After what had happened, the admission that he hadn't known two men could be physically intimate died in his throat.  His thoughts grew more panicked as he sifted through what to admit of his holoporn experience, and madly, it occurred to him that a man and a woman could probably do the same thing as two men, and he had also never seen that.  Although, upon further reflection, perhaps he had.  He had never seen female anatomy in person to determine how it was a man took them from behind, if not like that.  
  
When Kylo was silent, Hux continued.  "Hm.  It was the human-alien couplings for you, then?"  
  
"Yes," he answered simply.  He wasn't sure how to explain that the incongruity appealed to him, seemed a better fit for him than a relationship between two humans.  Ultimately, this still felt right, even after his experience with Hux.  
  
"Well then."  Hux stood, gathering his clothes from the floor, and began pulling on his sopping wet trousers.  "Perhaps you'd like to watch more?"  Kylo looked at him again, but his face was blank and unreadable, as were his emotions.  
  
Kylo shrugged, then answered honestly.  "Yes."  
  
"Do you want to take part again?"  
  
Kylo thought about it as he swung his legs over the edge of the bed.  "No.  I think I'll just watch the rest of the night."  
  
"Good."  
  
A pang went through Kylo, and he felt absurdly betrayed by the admission.  Then he felt Hux's palm against his face, pulling him up.  Kylo looked once again into Hux's impassive blue eyes.  
  
"I've never been with a Force user before.  I think you'd break me if we did that twice in one night."  
  
Kylo's mouth fell open.  "I've seen..." he'd seen Hux doing some unspeakably extreme things.  And he refused to believe that sex with himself was the most exceptional.  "And you're going out for round two!  It couldn't have been that satisfying."  
  
Hux gave him a half smirk, and Kylo saw how it transformed his face, made his blue eyes less hard.  Hux ran a hand absently through his damp red hair, pushing it off his forehead, then stepped back and grabbed his undershirt, pulling it over his head and turning away.  "I only have the two days here for the next three months.  I need to make the most of it, regardless of how singular this experience was."  
  
Kylo was mollified, and supposed he couldn't really argue with that logic.  He pulled on his boots and reached for his helmet.  
  
He'd masturbated all night to it before, and he was sure he could do it again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys are awesome. You can still talk to me here or on Tumblr - [@vadianna](http://vadianna.tumblr.com).


	4. Chapter 4

_“Whenever the devil harasses you, seek the company of men  
or drink more,_ _or joke and talk nonsense, or do some other merry thing._  
_Sometimes we must drink more, sport, recreate ourselves,  
and even sin a little to spite the devil, _  
_so that we leave him no place for troubling our consciences with trifles._  
_We are conquered if we try too conscientiously not to sin at all._  
_So when the devil says to you: do not drink, answer him:_  
_I will drink, and right freely, just because you tell me not to.”_  
_\- Martin Luther_

* * *

 

 _"You look lonesome, sunshine."_  
  
_He glanced up into the green-skinned, violet-eyed face of the twi'lek as she took the seat next to him.  He couldn't read her expression, but he never could with the non-humans._  
  
_"Not particularly," he muttered as he grabbed his drink and tried to leave.  He didn't want to talk to anyone at this bar. When subtlety didn't work, rudeness usually did.  
_

_Unexpectedly, the twi'lek put a restraining hand on his arm._  
  
_"Then I'm the one who's lonesome.  I'm just here for a talk.  I promise it won't cost you anything."_  
  
_Hux looked down at her hand, then back into her unreadable face.  He scowled.  "I know what twi'leks are about.  I'm not interested."  He tried to yank his arm back, but she kept her grip on it and tried to force him back down into the chair._  
  
_"That's an ugly stereotype, sunshine.  You've been around these chiss too long.  I promise I won't eat you unless you ask.  Sit down."_  
  
_Hux had never dealt with anyone who wanted his company this persistently.  He could feel his face heating while he decided what to do.  He hated himself for the tell.  He didn't often let himself get flustered._  
  
_The twi'lek blinked up at him.  "Will it help if I tell you my name?  I'm Esa.  You wouldn't say no to another drink from a friend, would you?"_  
  
_"You aren't a friend."_  
  
_She smiled, showing her teeth.  "If I had to guess, I'd say you don't have any of those.  I think beggars can't be choosers."  She yanked Hux's arm, and his drink sloshed onto the sleeve of his coat as he sat down on the seat hard, shocked into compliance by her accurate assessment._  
  
_He yanked his arm back and fished around the bar for a napkin to wipe his sleeve. "Find someone else to be friendly with.  I'm not looking for a friend."_  
  
_"Sunshine, I think that's exactly what you came here for."_  
  
_His eyes rose to meet hers, then went back down to his damp sleeve.  "And here I thought it was to get drunk.  Good thing I have you to tell me otherwise."_  
  
_"It is.  You'll thank me later."_  
  
_Hux slammed his palms on the bar, deciding to leave.  "I'd rather not.  Excuse me."_  
  
_"Why would a First Order lieutenant come to a chiss bar to get drunk?  Is it the charming ambiance?"_  
  
_Hux froze as he was rising from the seat.  He was turned away from her, and he could feel his face heating again._  
  
_"No, I think you belong with these chiss."  She leaned closer and hissed into his ear from behind.  "They're here because they hate themselves.  So do you.  You're fitting in well in this miserable place, sunshine."  She reached a hand up to his face and turned him back around.  He didn't meet her eyes._  
  
_"Let's not pretend you don't know what goes on here.  Who brought you the first time?"_  
  
_He was so stunned by the confrontation that he let the answer slip through his defenses.  "A classmate."_  
  
_Esa looked him up and down.  "Let me guess.  It wasn't because they thought you'd like it."_  
  
_Hux shook his head, still stunned, still not looking at her.  It had been a joke on him.  He had been delighted when the Imperial Sons finally brought him out.  They had paid a bp'fasshi in advance to pick him up at this bar.  He'd been flustered, not sure how to act in front of the others, and they'd laughed at him.  He had left, and avoided them after that._  
  
_"But you came back.  Why?"_  
  
_He licked his lips.  He didn't want to talk about this, ever.  He turned to go again._  
  
_She grabbed his arm again and stood.  "I know why.  Because you see all these miserable chiss in here taking it out on other species, and you envy them.  But you're not like them.  I can spot a kindred spirit a mile away, sunshine.  You're not looking to vent."_  
  
_He turned to look at her.  Her expression was still unreadable._  
  
_"You're here to browse and feel bad about it."_  
  
_He turned to go again.  Humiliating.  It was humiliating, and he didn't have to stand here to take this from a twi'lek hooker in some miserable hole-in-the-wall bar._  
  
_"I like browsing too, sunshine, and I'm not like them.  I didn't come here to watch, and I didn't come here to have some chiss call me names while they hate-fuck me."  She stood and put both hands on his shoulders, holding him in place.  She stretched up and whispered the last in his ear.  "I came here to find a nice young man who's ready to try something new."_  
  
  
***

  
A week after his leave, Hux was sitting in the officer's mess when Kylo Ren stumbled through the door.  Hux paused with his cup frozen in midair as the room silenced and the command staff of the _Finalizer_ watched Ren shuffle over to the serving area and begin to eat food with his hands.  
  
Ren was filthy and disheveled, wearing a stained black tank top, black boxer shorts and nothing else.  He was barefoot, and Ben Solo's face was on display for all to see.  Hux ran his eyes over Ren's numerous visible scars in shock, then glanced around the room to see the horror of recognition spread across the officer's faces.  Most only had looks of mild surprise.  Hux looked back over at Ren, pulled by unfamiliar indecision.  Did he admit to knowing who this was, or plead ignorance?  Would it look bad if he knew that Kylo Ren was Ben Solo, but told nobody and did nothing?  Suddenly his spy theory seemed a lot more likely than Ben Solo being a traitorous idiot.  
  
Ren was sweating profusely, his hair stuck wetly to his scalp and face and damp patches visible on the back of his tank top.  His skin was an unnatural pale color, and he had at least two day's growth of filthy, patchy facial hair.  He didn't seem aware of the silent scrutiny he was drawing from the full hall.  
  
It was outrageously out of character for Ren to be away from the few places he used regularly on the ship, and Hux had heard other staff members joking about how likely it was that Ren did everything, including sleeping and fucking, with his robes and helmet on. He pushed away the slightly crazed thought that _he knew that Ren did, and what was wrong with him-_

Hux became more alarmed when he realized Ren was unarmed.  He had refused to part with the lightsaber under any circumstances, which Hux had found odd given his natural abilities to defend himself otherwise.  
  
As Hux watched Ren pause in his disgusting eating and grimace in pain, realization dawned.  He winced, and began to covertly glance around the room, wondering how to extract him without incident.  
  
"Sir." Thanisson, seated across the table, nearly made him jump under close scrutiny.  Hux turned and regarded him cooly, trying to keep his face under control.  "Would you like me to call for a guard to take the prisoner back?"  
  
Prisoner.  Of course.  That's exactly what this would look like.  Hux's gaze drifted briefly to the Resistance tattoo on Ren's arm.  Stupid fuck.  Of course Ben Solo would have a Resistance tattoo.  And of course no one would recognize him the way Hux had last week.  Ben Solo had died at 15.  
  
Hux rose smoothly, the situation falling into place nicely.  "Unnecessary.  I will escort the prisoner back myself.  I wish to know how the lapse occurred, and rectify the matter personally."  He put enough emphasis on the last to indicate his displeasure, and crossed the room quickly, grabbing Ren by the arm.  Ren looked over at him, recognition not crossing his glassy eyes.  He turned back to the food and began eating with his hands again.  
  
"Sir, are you sure?  This prisoner looks..."  Thanisson trailed off.  Ren was tall and obviously fit, and visibly looked like more than a match for Hux.  Annoying, especially pointed out in front of the whole damn command.  
  
"Yes."  Hux drew his blaster and aimed it at Ren, who turned to look at him again.  "I'm sure I can handle myself with a prisoner in this state.  As you were."  With that, he began to pull on Ren's arm and lead him from the room.  
  
Ren straightened and turned to look at him, resisting for a moment.  "I'm-"  
  
"Did I invite you to speak?"  Hux thumbed the safety off the blaster, impassively aiming it straight into Ren's face.  "If you know what's good for you, you'll be silent and come with me.  Do you understand?"  
  
He could see Ren struggling with this.  His face finally registered something other than slack-jawed sickness.  His eyes narrowed, and his mouth closed.  "Oh."  
  
"Go."  Hux tugged sharply on Ren's arm again, and this time Ren complied.  The two walked through the door and down the empty hallway, Ren stumbling, his bare feet slapping audibly against the floor.  Hux engaged the safety on his blaster and holstered it again, using both arms to support Ren in what was likely more intimate than was typical of Hux, or any officer, handling a prisoner.  
  
"Where are you taking me?"  Ren asked, thickly, foggily.  
  
"Do you know where you are?"  
  
"No.  I was eating."  
  
"Do you know who I am?"  
  
"Hux."  
  
"All right.  We're going to medical."  
  
Ren didn't respond, so Hux tried to walk him faster to the lift at the end of the corridor.  A moment later, Ren's legs collapsed under him, and he fell through Hux's arms and hit the floor.  
  
Hux knelt next to him and pulled one of his eyes open.  His skin was clammy, cold, and disgusting - his face was smeared with food, both recent and some that had been there for days.  He smelled rankly of old sweat and sickness.  The white of his eye was yellow, and his pupil was dilated.  
  
"Shit," he muttered under his breath, looking up and down the corridor.  It was empty, so Hux picked Ren up under his arms and legs and carried him to the end of the hallway, stumbling under his weight, feeling Ren's clammy sweat dampening the arms of his uniform jacket.  
  
Carrying him like this was a terrible idea in general, but it would look particularly suspicious if he didn't call for a hovercart for a random escaped prisoner.  But this was Kylo Ren, who was too useful to let die in the middle of the hallway for the sake of discretion.  And anyway, this was Hux's fault.  Guilt began to prick at him, and he didn't allow himself to dismiss it.  
  
He was proud of himself for being able to carry the man and walk steadily all the way to the lift.  He got in and set Ren gently on the ground, then called up the medical level.  
  
When the lift opened, he entered the codes to hold it in place and went into the nearest general exam room.  
  
"Out," he declared to the three staff members inside, who were all sitting at their desks.  They turned to look at him, frowning, looking like they wanted to disagree.  
  
"Out.  I need this room for a classified patient.  Evacuate right now.  Use the lift in the eastern corridor."  As they rose resentfully from their desks, he glanced at the cabinet of treatments and saw what he needed, then confirmed that there was a med-droid in the room.  He watched to make sure the staff took a left from the doorway, then grabbed a hovercart from the corner and took it right, back to the lift.  
  
He gathered Ren and deposited him on the exam table.  He removed his black leather gloves and grabbed a pair of sterile ones, then brought the med-droid over to scan.  Ren had still not regained consciousness.  
  
"Fuck," he said aloud, as the results he had expected scrolled in a holoprojection above Ren.  
  
He turned around and grabbed a few items from the cabinet, administering the first as a shot into Ren's thigh.  Ren jerked, and his eyes opened.  
  
"Lord Ren," Hux addressed him calmly, levelly.  "Can you hear me?"  
  
Ren turned his sweating face to look at Hux.  "Yes."  
  
"I need to give you two drips, and I need to give you medication in addition to what I just did.  Will you let me do that?"  
  
Permission was necessary in general, and for Ren in particular, as Hux did not like to think what Ren could do when startled and disoriented, even in a diminished state.    
  
Ren's attention wasn't entirely on Hux.  He blinked his eyes a few times and didn't respond.  
  
"Lord Ren.  You will die without this treatment."  Again, said levelly, with as much calm as he could manage.  "Will you let me save your life?"  
  
"Okay,"  Ren managed, and then lost consciousness again.  
  
Hux swore, and let himself panic again.  He should have been conscious for a lot longer than that, and more coherent.  He glanced up at the med-droid readout, and found the problem had advanced quite a bit further than Hux thought possible.  He worked fast.  
  
He cancelled his appointments, locked the door, and sat with Ren as he slept afterwards, letting the treatment work.  Four hours later, Hux was watching as Ren began to stir.  His eyes opened slowly, clearer this time.  He was staring at the ceiling.  Hux didn't want to surprise him.  
  
"Lord Ren."  Ren's head swiveled to Hux, seated at the side of the bed.  "Do you know where you are?"  
  
Ren's eyes darted around Hux, and then his head turned back to the ceiling.  "Medical."  
  
"Do you remember what happened?"  
  
"I was weak, and let my physical body fail me.  It is because I have neglected my training with the Force.  This is a sign that I have strayed from the path, and I need to re-assess my priorities."  
  
Hux paused, unsure how to respond to his religious fervor.  "It was nothing you failed to do.  This was my fault."  
  
Ren's head swiveled over to Hux again.  He stared, still looking sick, but obviously paying attention this time.  "Explain."  
  
Hux had been rehearsing this in his head for most of the time Ren had been unconscious.  He had composed a speech.  He was good at that, and the familiar action was a comfort for a situation that was undeniably off the map for Hux.  He was going to discuss his private life with a coworker, which was not something he did.  He also didn't often have these conversations with humans, who Hux normally assumed knew their own biology.  He was going to have to do all this with someone who he had previously fantasized about, and who could use all this to ruin Hux's life. 

Ren had given him an easy out, too.  He could just let Ren believe he had gotten sick, and Hux had done him a favor. 

But he had failed Ren, which was the thing that burned Hux the worst.  He had a lot of pride in making sure his partners were well after they finished.  It was important that they took care of each other, especially if there was a biological safety risk involved for you or your partner.  Hux always made sure to check, before and after, if he wasn't familiar with the species.  But this had been such a small detail.  Something he hadn't thought about in years.  Still, he'd brought Ren to the Club, and hadn't taken proper care of him.  
  
He fixed his gaze on the wall behind Ren, not able to look at his sick face.  
  
"The aqualish.  I thought... when you watched me with it, before you tried... it was instructional.  I spat out its ejaculation, I didn't swallow it.  But you did, and I had forgotten why it's necessary.  Their ejaculate metabolizes part of their biology, and converts it into something that feeds an embryo.  In humans, their ejaculate is a kind of blood poisoning.  It presents as a mundane illness at first, with sweating, dizziness, aching.  Then it increases the appetite.  Later, there are a number of organ infections."  Hux paused, clenching his jaw.  "If left untreated for several days, it will kill a human.  You can either spit it out or take something to kill it afterwards, depending on... well, what you prefer.  It's a trivial matter.  But I had forgotten you were ignorant of it, and I apologize."  
  
Finishing, Hux found he was still mortified, but he had controlled his facial expression, and kept himself from blushing.  Kylo Ren was a bad idea, for so many reasons.  He should have known better than to try... anything.  What had he been thinking?  
  
His gaze dropped back down to Ren, who was still pale, and still had a vaguely queasy look on his face.  Ren turned his head back to face the ceiling and closed his eyes.  
  
"You... apologize."  
  
Hux's face did flame at that, and he turned away, lest Ren see it.  "Yes," he answered simply, not sure what else to say.  
  
"I was on a mission this week.  Had it taken longer than three days, I would have died believing my... that I had let myself get distracted, and you would have never known."  
  
Hux closed his own eyes, the feeling of humiliation settling fully in his chest.  He didn't know Ren had been on a mission this week, because of course Ren hadn't filled out the proper paperwork, or submitted any sort of report afterwards.  He had a moment to be annoyed before guilt washed through him, stronger this time.  
  
"Yes," he agreed again, not sure what Ren wanted to hear.  To save himself, he decided to change the subject.  He opened his eyes and took a moment to school his expression, then looked back to Ren, who still had his eyes closed.  
  
"You can... use the Force to cure yourself of illness?"  
  
"Yes, human illness.  I can recognize the foreign agent in my body and kill it.  This is... necessary, since the Dark Side of the Force corrupts the physical vessel.  It's best to hold that off as long as possible."  
  
"But the... the aqualish was different?"  
  
"I could feel something, but I can't recognize non-humans well.  I couldn't determine what it was or how it was hurting me.  I thought I had lost a finer communion with the Force, and believed I was lost."  
  
Hux reddened again, but he kept control of his expression, and stayed looking at Ren.  He still wasn't used to seeing Ren's face, or to hearing him speak more than three words at a time, and having both accusing him, rightly, of mortal negligence was unsettling.  "I... apologize for my lack of care causing your... religious crisis."  
  
Ren exhaled sharply.  Hux wasn't sure what that meant.  Ren didn't speak, and neither did Hux, for lack of anything else to say.  He had told Ren everything about what had happened, and he was too overwhelmed by his own failure to properly plan for what came after this.  After a few minutes of unbearably awkward silence, Hux decided to rise and leave.  
  
"What I gave you should have the foreign process completely wiped out in another hour.  I would recommend remaining here overnight, taking the fluids until your system has fully flushed the poison and replaced it.  You should feel weak, but mostly normal in 24 hours.  I'll lock this room and leave you to your own recovery."  
  
"You are... quite knowledgeable."

Hux let the corner of his mouth quirk. “I have reason to be.”

“Has this… happened to you?”  Ren’s speech was slowing down and slurring, Hux thought he might be going back to sleep.

“No, not this specifically.”  Hux let himself look at the wall again, summoning a memory.  A part of him (most parts of him, and probably the entirety of his better judgement) still resisted sharing something this personal, but he felt guilty enough about a first experience almost killing Ren that he pushed the story out before he could decide not to.

“I told you there was an Officer’s Club on Csilla.  It’s the only one in the Unknown Regions, closest to the academies.  When I was younger, it wasn’t an Officer’s Club, but it was an inter-species bar where the same sort of clientele gathered.  There’s not a lot of different species there, of course, because it’s Csilla.  Mostly chiss, the humans in the First Order, and a few other humanoids that have the same genders and biology.  The chiss do business with Mirialans and aqualish, which have very different biologies.  Mirialan biology is benign to humans, but aqualish isn’t.  The med-wing at the academies had posters of aqualish that warned you about fucking them.  ’Out on a date?  Don't fall for the bait!’ or some garbage like that.  The illustration of the aqualish was malevolent, and was often mocked.”

Ren’s face tightened.  "You told me… most students weren’t serious.  About it.“

“Without other humans on Csilla, there will always be students interested in species that are human-passing, for heterosexual sex.”  Hux shrugged.  "You can tell yourself a lot of lies about zeltron females if you’re desperate to stick your dick in something other than your roommate’s ass.  Some of them even have the same skin tones as humans, and if they don’t have tattoos, you can pretend.  There’s a group of professional female zeltron that still work the Club regularly for that reason.“  Hux paused. “I’m told the female academies prefer chiss males.”

“Then why the aqualish posters?”

“The aqualish there were predatory, as were some of the chiss. They knew the military crowd wasn’t looking for them.  So they would get the students and junior officers drunk, or slip something in the drinks until their victim didn’t care.  Most students would be too embarrassed afterwards to seek treatment, and they would die.  There was also a poster with a leering chiss on it, warning against date rape.”  He paused again. “That doesn’t happen anymore, now that it’s a regular Officer’s Club.”  

The defense of the clubs sounded silly out loud, but the predatory bar patrons still made him angry. Possibly with the same sort of absurd, protective guilt that had prompted him to tell the story.  He had seen it happen many times and hadn’t intervened.  Back then, he had wanted to be invisible, to have as little to do with what was going on at that bar as possible.  Later, he had made sure none of the predators were allowed into the club.  
  
Hux stood a moment longer, then turned to leave.  Discussing this with someone he worked with still felt like a bad idea, but something about sharing with Ren also felt like a relief after their mutual vacation.  Why though?  He didn't need to share, there were plenty of people at the club to fraternize with.  He had grown out of that kind of connection.  And part of him was weary now, since Ren had a very good reason to hold a grudge.  Telling the story had cleared his conscious enough that he began to plan ways to guard against Ren blackmailing him.  
  
"What will you do?"  
  
Hux's brow creased, worried that Ren had been reading his thoughts.  He still wasn't sure how that worked.  "What do you mean?" he asked, cautiously.  
  
"What will you give me, now that you've almost taken my life?"  
  
Interesting.  Probably dangerous.  But good to have it out in the open, at least.  Hux schooled his expression and turned back around.  "What do you want?"  
  
"Take me with you next time."  
  
Relief flooded through Hux, and he had to work hard to suppress a laugh, but he let the corner of his mouth quirk. 

"That's all you want?"

Ren's eyes half-opened, though he still stared at the ceiling.  His brows drew together.  "What do you mean?"

Hux blinked.  "You... must want something more.  I almost killed you."

Ren smiled.  It transformed his face, and Hux saw Ben Solo again.  He set his mouth in a line.  Ren answered him after a moment of silence.

"I do dangerous things.  It's not the first time I've almost died."

Hux thought about the scars on his skin.  "Of course."

"I can sense your guilt.  You want me to ask for more, so you can stop feeling guilty.  But you don't have anything that I-" he trailed off, and closed his eyes again.  "I don't need to ask you for anything.  But I do want to go back to the Officer's Club.  Take me."

Hux burned at the thought of Ren reading his thoughts like that, but if this was all he wanted, he didn't want to push the issue right now.  "You'd go back, even after almost dying?"  
  
"Even with the asshole that almost killed me."  
  
This didn't really feel like an admonishment, and Hux kept the half-smile.  "That was the aqualish."  
  
Ren tipped his head slightly in Hux's direction and opened one eyes.  "I forgive the aqualish, too."  
  
"I'll send you a comm with the details of my next leave."  
  
Ren closed his eye and turned his head back.  "I know when you're going.  So predictable."  
  
This was less amusing.  Hux began walking to the door.  "I expect to hear about your mission once you've made a full recovery, Lord Ren."  
  
"Yes, General."

  
  
***

  
  
_With Esa, Hux was insatiable.  It was her, but it was also that she was Other.  It was her lekku._    
  
_He had been ashamed, at first, that he was so turned on by it.  That running his hands over and down them as they were draped over her arms made his skin heat, or the image of them draped on the sheets of the bed behind her made him want to grab them and pull.  She moaned prettily when he did, she told him it was the most sensitive part of her body.  She taught him different ways to pleasure her with them.  Hux loved every single erotic act he could perform with them, would sometimes come untouched just from touching and pleasuring her._  
  
_It was better after Esa realized this, and told him it was the same with him - twi'leks didn't have hair like his, and his was beautiful.  He noticed, then, how often her fingers were through it, carding it, pulling it, petting it.  It made the sex even better.  He wished he could grow it out for her, and he began keeping it longer than regulation, pushing the boundaries in order to bring Esa more pleasure.  Nobody noticed, of course, on the shit duties he was posted on._    
  
_He'd been made to bend over for many of his classmates, sometimes out of mutual curiosity, but mostly because he thought it might win him friends.  It never did.  After finishing school, he'd tried relationships with women, because it was what one did after finishing school, but the women always seemed as uninterested as himself._  
  
_In school, and after, he had gone to that chiss bar, and sat and watched the species as they came and went.  He watched the chiss take the others into the back, and he knew they had the same problem he did - that they saw something they couldn't have, and wanted it anyway.  He fantasized about taking his pleasure like they did.  Watching them had made him miserable and ashamed, which was what he had wanted at the time._  
  
_Esa helped him get away from that.  She had talked him into it, after he had been denying himself for so long, after years of shutting everyone else out.  She'd become everything he wanted, both sexually and intellectually.  But especially sexually.  He couldn't stop thinking about her body, and couldn't get enough of her when they were together.  He'd fuck her into the mattress, run his tongue over her neck to taste the sweet, sugary taste of her sweat, watch her bear her teeth and squint her violet eyes at him, her hands in his hair, his fingers around her lekku, pulling slightly to make her cry out, then massaging the pain away and watching her skin twitch under the tender treatment._  
  
_It only took a month before she was all he thought about.  Every day, he lived for his weekends, when he'd go to the chiss bar, and she'd be waiting for him, and he finally felt like he had something to live for._  
  
  
  
***

  
Nearly three months later, Kylo Ren was leaning against the shuttle when Hux walked into the bay.  Hux hadn't bothered to check on Ren in the interim, either his holoporn views or how long he'd been waiting here for Hux.  But Ren had resumed training regularly with the Knights, and was taking missions again, so Hux assumed whatever was bothering him before had been sorted out.  Their working relationship hadn't changed, which was still a source of frustration to Hux.  He had been hoping that Ren would be, at the very least, less antagonistic toward him.  But perhaps that was for the best.  Still, it left Hux unsure how to act around Ren.  He was so taciturn behind the mask, it was difficult to know what he was thinking when he wasn't being deliberately difficult.  
  
"Lord Ren."  Hux nodded as he passed and began to walk up the ramp into the shuttle.  
  
"General," Ren answered through his voice synthesizer.  Hux heard him following behind.  Hux trusted him to prep the loading area for takeoff, so he went to the cockpit and began the procedures.  In a few moments, Ren joined him and the ship was on its course.  
  
They sat in silence until Hux made the jump to hyperspace, then he stood and prepared to go back to his rooms.  He turned and nodded.  "If that's all, Lord Ren?"  
  
Ren looked up at him.  "Are we going to the same place?"  
  
Hux frowned.  "Yes.  We can go someplace else, if you'd prefer.  But as I said, the club in Hutt Space is... the most ideal."  
  
"No," he answered, rising.  "I'll retire until we land."  He pushed past Hux and began walking away, exiting the cockpit, but paused in the doorway.  "No comments about my behavior leading up to this... excursion?"  
  
Hux cocked his head, curious.  "I didn't check in on you, if that's what you're implying.  Should I have?"  
  
"No," he answered quickly, then walked through the door.  
  
Hux half-smiled again, staring after him.  He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the chair.  
  
It was foolish to expose himself to Kylo Ren, of course.  It had been ill-advised last time, too.  But Hux had been more than a little concerned when the powerful enforcer that the First Order used to track and execute traitors had begun questioning him about his leisure time.  
  
Kylo Ren's holonet searches had been the first thing Hux had checked to find out what Ren was doing.  Hux had been surprised to learn that Kylo Ren didn't use the holonet to research individuals.  Of course he didn't, he had the Force for that.  Kylo Ren's use of the holonet had been more... classical in nature.  
  
Hux was fascinated when he realized Kylo Ren only used the holonet to search for xenoporn, and even more amazed when he'd looked into Ren's holoset and found that his interest was almost exclusively Major Fuxx.  That Ren's favorites, the ones with the most views, were all Hux's own videos was once again alarming, because Hux thought that Ren was trying some blackmail scheme against him.  He had argued with himself over the likelihood of this.  He'd never been found out for the videos.  But somehow Ren knew.  
  
Hux debated for a time, trying to determine if he could use the evidence of Ren's xenophilia inclinations to reverse the blackmail in such an instance.  He had almost decided on this course of action, and calmed himself down enough that a more benign thought occurred to him.  
  
What if Ren just wanted to ask about the Clubs, and didn't know how?  Maybe he thought Hux knew about them, and he wanted to go himself.  Maybe he'd picked something like that out of Hux's thoughts.  Hux had no idea how truthful Ren was about his ability to read minds.  
  
The thought of Ren being alone with his interests did tug at Hux in a way that he didn't like.  It was a softness in himself he only allowed, paradoxically, to the innumerable sex partners he'd shared his body with over the years.  At work, it was a liability.  But the knowledge of Ren's hobby haunted him, sat in the back of his mind.    
  
A quick search of every flight that Kylo Ren had taken with the First Order in the last three years revealed that he hadn't stepped foot on any planet with a Club.  He also never went anywhere on leave, only where he was assigned for missions.  These were mostly human-populated areas - the First Order dealt mostly with humans, and Kylo Ren was good at sniffing out information leaks and traitors.  
  
He also looked into Ren's comms.  Ren didn't communicate with anyone outside the First Order, mostly just his Knights.  This was always for orders.  The Knights didn't comm him back unless requested to.  
  
He wasn't sure why he bothered to look into this, because he knew what he would find.  Ultimately there would be only Ren, in his room, by himself, with proclivities that he concealed, that isolated him from others.  It was depressing in a way that hit too close to home.  
  
_You look lonesome, sunshine._  
  
So Hux tried an experiment.  He began uploading his own videos to the _Finalizer_ holonet on a regular basis, to see if Ren would find and view them.  This proved, beyond a doubt, that Ren was interested in xenophilia.  Hux had been somewhat concerned, then alarmed, when he noticed the decline in Ren's work and an increase in the time spent in his quarters the more videos Hux made available.  He thought of stopping, but something in him couldn't do it - the perverse notion that his biggest fan should really see all his videos.    
  
Hux had let him keep all but the last one, and that had been a gamble that worked.  With the mask, he hadn't been sure how interested Ren was in the trip, though he had been willing enough to watch, as Hux thought he would.  Hux had been surprised to learn that Ren didn't even know about the Clubs - how was that possible?  Hux supposed he had never spoken of his interest with anyone, and perhaps information about them was harder to come by from a non-military background.  
  
Hux's sentimentality had turned more to vexation when he learned that Kylo Ren had never been intimate with anyone, period.  How had nobody taken Ben Solo to bed?  Hux had been obsessed with him as a boy, first as an escapist fantasy.  Ben Solo had famous parents, lived in rich and well-appointed Hosnian Prime, and was magic.  Then Ben had grown into a charmingly awkward and attractive teenager who was also rich, famous, had a family, had friends, and was also magic.    
  
The fantasy had changed from being Ben Solo to being Ben Solo's partner.  It was embarrassingly elaborate, and involved Ben Solo destroying the miserable schools and dead-end bases he was stationed at in his youth, and seeing something in Hux that made him spare his life and take him elsewhere.  Hux had mourned Ben's death sincerely, but continued the fantasy for years after, aging Ben in his mind and fantasizing about things they'd do together.  
  
There weren't any Ben Solos in the former Imperial colonies.  Everyone was poor, hungry, and desperate.  The desperation always took the form of pettiness to those you perceived to be beneath you.  This was always, always Hux, when he was younger.  He had no heroes in the Outer Rim.  He had Ben Solo, who was his dirty secret, and something he could never have.  
  
Being confronted with Ben Solo again had been unpleasant.  It was impossible that he was Kylo Ren.  It made far more sense that he'd gone deep undercover and was doing assassination missions for the Resistance.  That he'd killed the real Kylo Ren and was targeting First Order officers. 

This was a brilliant strategy, actually, one worth returning to at a later time, to turn back around on the Resistance.  
  
That made far more sense than Ben Solo defecting, rising up the ranks of the First Order with a reputation for executing defectors with a vengeance, and spending his off hours masturbating to Hux shoving his face into the spongy flesh of a jawa.  
  
Seeing Ben had also been unpleasant because there had been a kind of painful innocence to him, improbable in a ruthless killer like Kylo Ren.  But Hux had seen it naked on his face when he pulled the helmet off.  It had made Hux want him.  It had also made him fiercely protective when he saw the fear and discomfort along with it.  Hux had tried to get him to leave, but he knew it was more complicated than that.  He tried to make it as gentle as possible, and really, the aqualish, aside from the blood poisoning, was one of the more mild first partners one could have.  It was the reason Hux had chosen the aqualish in the first place.  
  
And fuck if sex with Ben Solo wasn't as good as Hux had imagined, all those years ago.  He had briefly considered trying to find a club where one could fuck Force users, because there was probably something to that.  A shiver passed through him when he remembered that non-humans were Force sensitive, too.  
  
Hux shook himself out of his reverie when a more unpleasant thought occurred to him, and he quickly walked to his rooms to escape it.  
  
Perhaps it was nice to have another human to share the experience with, too.  One who was, apparently, his biggest fan, and who Hux had once admired.  
  
  
  
***

  
  
_"Take me with you."_  
  
_Hux was leaning up on one elbow, looking down at Esa, who glanced away from him._  
  
_"Sunshine, you know it doesn't work that way."_  
  
_"Why?"_  
  
_She rolled over on her side.  "You don't even know what I do."_  
  
_Hux clenched his jaw.  "You won't tell me.  You won't even tell me if Esa is your real name."_  
  
_"No, I won't."  She reached her fingers up to run through Hux's hair.  Hux jerked away, put his back to her and swung his legs over the edge of the bed._  
  
_"I can't go back anymore.  I'll never go anywhere past being a lieutenant on some dead-end border patrol ship.  I'm a bastard son, I'm from no Imperial lineage, and that's how it works, Esa."  He huffed through his nose, put his face in his hands.  "I'll have to eat shit from some ancient ex-imperial Major for the rest of my life while we look for threats in the middle of nowhere that will never come."_  
  
_He could feel Esa crawl up behind him and lean against his back, put one arm around his waist and lean her cheek into his hair._  
  
_"Sunshine, I've known since I met you that you don't think much of yourself."_  
  
_Hux barked laughter.  "What does that have to do with anything?  It doesn't matter what I think of myself.  I'm nobody.  Only family counts.  If it didn't, they'd have to admit that their inbred successors weren't capable of making any decisions past putting colonies on starvation rations so they can have a little more."_  
  
_She nuzzled into his hair.  He could feel one of her lekku dragging against his shoulder.  His skin prickled.  "So show them what someone on starvation rations can do.  You put so much passion in denying yourself, sunshine.  Look what happened when you stopped."  She put a hand to his face and turned it, leaning out so they could look at each other.  "Do you come to my bed because you're doing something bad?"_  
  
_"No," Hux breathed.  "That hasn't been true for a long time.  I want to leave with you.  I want to leave the First Order behind and go somewhere else with you, I want us to be together.  Esa-"_  
  
_She clamped a hand over his mouth and put her forehead against his.  "I know, sunshine.  You stopped telling yourself you couldn't, and you're the best lover I could ask for."  She removed her hand and leaned in for a kiss.  Hux's hands went up to her lekku and squeezed gently as he tasted the sweet warmth of her mouth, felt her tongue move past his lips and chase his into his own mouth.  He closed his eyes, exhaled through his nose, and squeezed her lekku again._  
  
_She pulled back and blinked up at him.  "You've been telling yourself no long enough, sunshine.  Why don't you show me just how far you can get in the First Order when you turn that hate around on people who deserve it?"_  
  
_Her eyes narrowed and she showed her teeth.  Hux didn't know what she did for a living, but he'd always got the impression it was rough work.  It drove him crazy.  Maybe she worked for herself.  Maybe she could choose to do what she wanted, go where she wanted.  Hux wanted her to choose him, and he wanted to make those other choices together._  
  
_But he began working her proposition over in his mind.  Perhaps he had to show her he could be good at his work, first.  Of course she wouldn't want a Lieutenant in a dead-end job.  He'd have to show her something else._  
  
_And she was right.  He began to think he could._  
  
  
  
***  
  
  
  
When Hux approached the bay door after the ship had landed, he was not ready for the sight of Ben Solo in a First Order officer's uniform.  When he stopped in his tracks, Ren looked down at the ground and crossed his arms behind his back.  The uniform was too tight across the thighs and shoulders.  It was obscene.  
  
"You told me last time that this was more appropriate."  
  
Hux knew he couldn't keep the flush from his face, but he was wearing the Fuxx mask, and it was dark, and maybe Ren wouldn't notice.  He did take a moment to make sure his voice was steady before answering.  
  
"You saw that there were others dressed like you, surely?"  
  
Ren glanced back up at him.  "Yeah.  That... I'm not sure if I liked that."  
  
Hux laughed, genuinely, couldn't hold it in.  Ren looked up at him, startled.  His face was comically easy to read, without the mask on.  "You get used to it."  He paused.  "Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if there was at least some xenoporn with Kylo Ren in it.  Perhaps we'll see if we can find it."  
  
Hux was embarrassed.  There was something singularly shocking about this, and he was trying not to think about it.  He tried to hide some of his fluster behind a joke when Ren seemed unsure how to respond.  "Perhaps you'd like me to invite one of the Kylo Rens this time?"  
  
The tips of Ren's ears grew red as he glanced down at the floor again.  "If you want."  
  
Hux thought about offering Ren a Fuxx mask, but the idea of having his face hidden wasn't very appealing.  He considered how recognizable Ren might be, but they were unlikely to run into someone that had met Ben Solo in Vena Cal, and most non-humans weren't good at human facial recognition.    
  
Ren looked back up.  "Is something wrong?"  
  
Hux, still trying to reign his emotions back in, jumped slightly.  "What do you mean?"  
  
"I guess..." Ren's brow creased as he trailed off.  "Normally I can't pick up any emotions from you.  But now you feel... strongly.  Of something.  I'm not sure what, though."  
  
"Are you reading my thoughts?"  This came out more harsh than Hux intended.  He had trouble keeping his voice steady, the thought like a cold bucket of water being tossed over him.  
  
Ren recoiled slightly, and a look of sullen admonishment came over his face.  "No, I can't... not like that.  I just... feel like something might be wrong with you."  
  
Hux turned and strode past him wordlessly and down the ramp, listening to Ren's footsteps follow behind him.  He couldn't answer, and didn't want to.  Hux allowed his gloved hand to come up and cover his mouth, and succumbed to the blush he had been trying to control a moment ago.  
  
If someone had asked him, ten years ago, what his biggest sexual fantasy was, he would have likely answered with this exact scenario:  Taking Ben Solo, dressed in a First Order Officer's uniform, into an Officer's Club and letting him masturbate to the sight of Hux getting taken by an ithorian.  
  
Hux could feel himself getting hard, and closed his eyes briefly, feeling unsure of himself for the first time in years.

  
***

  
_When Esa entered the bar, Hux tipped his drink to her, bearing the sleeve that displayed his new rank.  Esa sat down at the bar next to him, gestured to the bartender, and turned to him._  
  
_"What was it this time, sunshine?"_  
  
_"Pirates.  I engineered a navigation failure so we could enter a sector where they were known to stay.  They occasionally hit our supply convoys, but the patrol to keep them back was given to some governor's son who wasn't doing the job.  I found them and took them out, then faked a communication failure so I could comm command directly, rather than having the Major on the_ Lariat _take the credit."_  
  
_She took his drink out of his hand and finished it off, giving him a mischievous look over the rim.  "Well, that's quite the feat.  They promoted you for that?"_  
  
_"It was my third commendation," Hux answered, "They're moving me onto a Star Destroyer after this."_  
  
_She set the mug down on the counter and blinked slowly at him.  "That sounds like serious work.  Do they still give you weekly leave there?"_  
  
_Hux glanced away.  "No.  It's monthly."_  
  
_She put her fingers in his hair.  "That's fine, sunshine.  I'll always be here for you when you come back."  She leaned in.  "Tell me, do you regret the move?"_  
  
_He didn't.  Even though he got to see her less, he was enjoying the challenge of working his way through the system, bypassing all the dead weight, tricking COs into thinking he continued to accidentally find action when he was on patrol.  It felt good.  Like he was finally doing something, succeeding._  
  
_Still.  He didn't think it had registered that he couldn't see Esa every week anymore.  He grabbed her waist and kissed her, running his other hand along one of her lekku.  She pushed him away and re-seated herself, looking evil again._  
  
_"Well, this calls for a celebration, wouldn't you say?  We'll have to do something that'll have you thinking of me for the whole month."_  
  
_Hux frowned.  "What did you have in mind?"  Her ideas tended to be a little... eccentric._  
  
_The bartender delivered Esa's drink along with another for Hux, and Esa eyed the patrons through the mirror positioned over the bar.  "What do you know about kubaz?"_  
  
_He glanced up and spotted one, a deeply hooded, almost unrecognizable form over in a dark corner._  
  
_Hux raised his eyebrows.  "I'm surprised to see one here.  But that's about all."_  
  
_"Mmmm," Esa trilled, spinning around on her stool and standing, drink in hand.  "He's a bit lonely here, isn't he?  But I bet he knows what he's doing."  She opened her mouth to show her teeth, what Hux had learned was the twi'lek equivalent of a grin.  "They have those long snouts that could be a lot of fun for you and me, sunshine."_  
  
_Hux froze in place.  "What do you mean?"_  
  
_"I think you know exactly what I mean."_  
  
_"I..." he trailed off, a protest on the tip of his tongue.  But as he looked from Esa to the kubaz, his mouth went dry.  The thought of the kubaz sucking him off while he yanked on Esa's lekku and pleasured her orally was... exquisite.  He hadn't considered anything like it before.  He paled, and looked at Esa more steadily._  
  
_"I see you do."  Her eyes twinkled, and she turned back to the corner, beginning to make her way over.  "Let's see if he has some of the same interests we do, and if there's anything we can do for him."_  
  
  
  
***  
  
  
  
At the bar, a helmet-less Ren could actually imbibe in the drink Hux bought him, and he did so, making a face when he took a sip of the alcohol.  Hux turned away to hide a smirk, not wanting to embarrass Ren with a question about his drinking habits, knowing what sort of answer he was likely to get.  
  
He glanced up into the mirror, surveying the bar once again.  "Do you want to come with me again, or do you want to go by yourself tonight?"  He was already fairly certain what Ren's answer would be.  He still needed to hear it.  
  
"No," Ren answered quickly, a little loudly.  Hux glanced over to look at him in the mirror.  "No, I'll come with you again.  If that's okay."  
  
"Of course," Hux answered smoothly.    
  
"But..." Hux heard him shift on the stool, and he glanced over.  Both of Ren's gloved hands were around his sweating liquor glass.  Ren was looking down into it, not at Hux.  "I'd like to go play Sabacc."  He nodded over to the corner, where a game was in progress.  
  
Hux's eyebrows went up as he looked across to the group of six reptilians.  "You can do as you wish."  He paused, on the cusp of asking if he'd played cards before, then decided not to.  He knew what the answer would be.  A warning might be prudent, though.  "The games here won't get out of hand, but you know-"  
  
"I know about gambling in Hutt Space," Ren answered irritably, standing up and walking stiffly over to the corner.  Hux admired the way the uniform pulled across his thighs and ass, spared a stray thought to wonder how Ren knew about gambling in Hutt Space, then sighed and turned back to the room.    
  
He spotted two rodians he recognized and decided to join them, debating whether Ren would enjoy sex with them.  These two always came together, and they preferred a threesome.  Their skin, when wet, became very sensitive, and they absorbed everything through it.  They were very eager company, and were one of the easiest species Hux could please with his tongue and hands alone.  When they finished, they secreted a thick, sweet substance from their pores that Hux liked to lick off.  The memory of their taste was making Hux's mouth water.  But the Rodians preferred the room to be very hot during sex, which might not be comfortable for Ren if he didn't want to undress.    
  
Rodians were also an easy early partner, but Hux didn't want to make Ren feel pressured to participate.  It had somehow slipped his mind to ask what Ren liked best to watch.  The rodians were fairly mild partners compared to the scaramaia Ren saw last time.  
  
As Hux greeted the rodians, it occurred to him how easy considering the pleasure of others came in this setting.  Considering whether an action would make Ren uncomfortable back on the _Finalizer_ was laughable.  But here, Hux was always very accommodating.  The contrast had occurred to him before, but it was much more laughable now that he was doing this with a coworker he didn't particularly care for.  Professionally, at least.  Mostly.  
  
Hux chatted with the rodians about mutual acquaintances.  They got around to the other clubs more than Hux did, and had recently been to the one in Cinnegar, which required travel through the New Republic that Hux had not risked since he became a general.  It was the newest of the clubs, and Hux was curious if it drew Republicans, or the same drifter crowd as the others. 

One did not wear the Imperial or First Order uniforms into the club on Cinnegar, and there was not one on the door.  Rather, the phrase "Be Pure! Be Vigilant! Behave!" was stenciled in red paint.  
  
It was the name of the first holoporn Esa had made with Hux, before she decided he needed a fake name and structure to the vids.  
  
  
  
***  
  
  
_Hux frowned as they walked into their usual rented room.  A holorecorder was set up facing the bed.  He turned to Esa, who followed behind him with the female chiss they had spoken to at the club._  
  
_Esa had, somehow, talked with enough of the like-minded chiss to form a group that bought the bar and turned it into a kind of members-only club, which was the safe way to do what they did on Csilla.  He tried not to pay attention to the details, but he thought Esa might have put up credits for the business, too.  The bar's clientele remained static, mostly chiss and the few species they traded with, but this way they knew an uninitiated chiss wouldn't accidentally find the place and execute someone for Crimes Against Nature.  A few new faces had begun to appear, all of whom seemed to know Esa.  Hux and Esa had enjoyed many of them together._  
  
_Enriching their sex life with different partners was far better than Hux had expected.  Fascination mingled with lust and delight with each new species as Hux learned how to pleasure his partners.  It was an incredible feeling that he was increasingly addicted to._  
  
_Initiating his partners was also becoming a large part of the pleasure.  The third partner was often as furtive and full of self-loathing as Hux had been that first time with Esa.  He enjoyed showing the third partner the complete lack of shame that Hux had found so freeing.  He felt like he was giving them a piece of the beautiful thing he and Esa had together, and the partners were always so very delighted with the gift._  
  
_The things that made his partners different from humans continued to turned Hux on.  He had come to terms with that, and it would never stop being incredible to him.  His skin heated as he drew his fingers across the tusks of aqualish.  The miralan had a fanlike, prehensile tongue that Hux and Esa both thoroughly enjoyed.  And sex with these strangers of different species was simple.  They wanted him because he was human, and he wanted them because they weren't.  They wanted to exchange mutual pleasure, and learn how to make each other feel good.  The learning experience made sex much more intimate than the perfunctory lovemaking Hux had experienced with his human relationships.  The connection was deeper because it needed to be._  
  
_But as much as he loved their third partner for the night they spent together, Hux loved Esa more than anything else in his life.  He had begun to rise quickly through the ranks once he put his mind to it.  He found he had a talent for stepping around the nepotism of the First Order and making the chosen sons and daughters look irredeemably incompetent through all manner of subterfuge, backstabbing, and careful planning.  He began to genuinely enjoy his work, and had projects, soldiers, and a command all his own now._  
  
_But he would still defect if Esa would let him.  She continued to refuse him, but Hux always asked, hoping that she would change her mind._  
  
_Hux loved Esa to the ends of the galaxy and back.  But the holorecorder was something else._  
  
_"No."_  
  
_The chiss woman looked at him, startled, then turned to look at Esa.  "I thought that was the point of tonight," she said, uncertainly._  
  
_"It is," she said, quickly, to the woman.  "I just need to talk to him about it."_  
  
_"Talk to me about what?  We aren't using that thing."  Hux glared at the holorecorder and crossed his arms._  
  
_Esa shook her head, then put a hand on Hux's shoulder.  Hux scowled at her.  He knew she would talk him into it, because she always did.  But he really needed to say no this time._  
  
_"Sunshine, do you have any idea how beautiful you are when you make love?"_  
  
_"You see it regularly enough.  You don't need a holovid for that."_  
  
_"It's not for me."_  
  
_Hux pulled back.  "It's not for me, either.  Why are you making it?"_  
  
_The chiss woman spoke up.  "I want to take it out to the continent."_  
  
_Hux turned to her.  "What," he asked, not sure he wanted to know about this._  
  
_"She knows there are more people like us out there, sunshine.  We were talking about it, and you know how much I like to bring people to the club.  Some people know what they want, and some people can't picture it.  I want to show them, sunshine.  I want them to see how beautiful you are with the chiss."_  
  
_His stomach tightened.  "You're telling me you... you're making a sex tape of me, to show strangers?"  His mouth opened, and then closed.  "Absolutely not!"_  
  
_This was making him feel sick.  He didn't want... he liked the others, but the thought of Esa thinking she could share him like this was... it was a betrayal._  
  
_She stepped forward, closing the distance between them, and blinked up into his face, touching his cheek and turning his reddened, sullen expression down to face her.  "Hux," she whispered.  He shivered.  She never used his name.  "Doesn't it feel so very good, when we find someone who doesn't know what they want?"_  
  
_He could feel his face reddening further.  He tried to look away, but she pinched his cheek and drew his gaze back to her.  She knew the answer.  He expressed this in every way he knew how.  But still.  He knew he couldn't explain the sense of betrayal to her.  He tried a more practical approach._  
  
_"Do you think I want a holoporn of me floating around?  Maybe you should explain what an excellent career move that would be."_  
  
_"I thought of that."  She reached into the pouch she carried at her side and pulled out a mask that was made out of the same cloth as his uniform.  "You can wear this.  I also brought a hat for you."  She pulled a hat and a similar mask out of her bag and handed it over to the chiss._  
  
_The chiss took them, and stepped closer to them.  "Esa said... she said you really liked helping people.  Like this.  That you both did."  She looked down, then looked back up at him.  She was nervous, but her gaze on Hux was steady.  "There are people who... who I think would really like this place.  But they need to see first.  They need to believe that it's possible, that it happens and that it's okay.  That both people can really like it."_  
  
_"You know what it's like at the bar now.  Isn't it better, now that we have our own place, and there's more people coming?  Don't you want other people to feel welcome?" Esa added, still trying to cajole Hux.  It was working.  His sense of betrayal was going away as he saw her intentions more clearly.  He knew it would, no matter how bad this idea was._  
  
_"If it's a matter of getting more people in the bar, it would be better off Csilla," Hux muttered.  The chiss woman made a low sound and flinched back.  Hux had a moment of guilt before Esa could really twist the knife._  
  
_"But that's the place I met you, sunshine.  It's important to me.  And I think it's important to you."  She stretched up on her toes and kissed his mouth gently.  He sighed through his nose and put his hands around her waist, pulling her closer.  The taste of her reminded him why he was about to do something incredibly stupid._  
  
_She pulled back and blinked up at him, her eyes glittering with the humor he recognized and loved.  "Besides.  They need it more here, I think."_  
  
_Saying no would mean turning around and walking out of here, and he knew he wasn't a strong enough person to do that.  Still, he protested weakly._  
  
_"It's not like you need video evidence that a human man can have sex with a chiss woman.  I'm pretty sure most people can imagine that."_  
  
_"Most chiss couldn't."  The woman watched the intimate moment between Hux and Esa.  Hux didn't mind, strangely, in this setting.  "The idea would repel most of them.  And the others wouldn't... they wouldn't be able to picture it, no.  They wouldn't think it was possible."_  
  
_Hux sighed.  "That's one more reason not to do this.  I don't need the chiss after the human that defiled one of their own."_  
  
_"'Be pure! Be vigilant! Behave!'" Esa quoted the rhetoric of one of the more extreme sects that they'd both heard and laughed about before.  She pulled away and went to the recorder, fiddling with the controls and not looking at Hux._  
  
_"Besides, you'll be disguised.  They won't be able to recognize you or her."_  
  
_Hux closed his eyes and clenched his fists at his sides.  He could feel his short nails digging into his palms.  He blew a breath slowly through his nose, and counted to ten.  Then he opened his eyes._  
  
_"I'll do this if you let me defect and run away with you.  Then I won't have to worry about my career."_  
  
_She looked up at him, the mischief in her eyes.  "No.  You'll do it anyway, then go back to the Order feeling like a naughty boy."_  
  
_Hux rolled his eyes, then began unbuttoning his tunic, suddenly lacking the energy and reasoning abilities to continue the fight.  Esa was right, of course.  He would do it because she asked.  And maybe it_ was _a good thing._  
  
_"No."_  
  
_Hux glanced up, startled, with his tunic partially unbuttoned._  
  
_"Leave the uniform on."_  
  
_He frowned.  "Why?  To make it easier to find me?"_  
  
_She shook her head, a human gesture Hux had taught her.  Her lekku swayed fetchingly when she did it.  His gaze went to them, then back to her face._  
  
_"It's important that you're a First Order officer.  Just as important as the fact that she's a chiss.  It shows that if you can have it, anyone can have it.  It's a symbol."_  
  
_"That's garbage."  He was fighting down a blush, though.  She was right.  Something about it did make sense._  
  
_"Button your shirt and get into bed, sunshine."_  
  
***  
  
Hux passed time discussing the Deep Core club with the rodians, and was surprised when he glanced up and noticed Ren's cardplaying had drawn an audience.  Not a good thing.  He walked over, taking in the mountains of chips in front of both Ren and the only other player left.  Ren's opponent was a barabel in an olive Imperial uniform, though his trandoshan and yinchorri cohorts had abandoned his cause in order to cheer for Ren.  They were slapping Ren on the back and using a strange hissing, lilting language that Hux did not recognize.  He crossed his arms and watched at a distance.  
  
Ren beat his opponent in eight hands.  The barabel raised a loud protest when it lost, but was shouted down by the others, who had presumably decided that Ren wasn't cheating.  Ren gathered his chips, then turned and gave the reptilian crowd behind him a crooked smile.  He looked more relaxed than Hux had ever seen him.  Hux pushed through the crowd - about half the club had gathered to watch - and greeted one of the yinchorri he recognized in passing as he forced his way to Ren, bending close and nearly hissing in his ear.  
  
"You didn't cheat with the Force, did you?"  
  
Ren's crooked smile dissolved into a petulant frown.  "I don't need the Force to win at cards."  
  
Hux gave him a dry look.  "Forgive me if I don't think highly of your social skills."  He glanced at the mountain of chips, then back up into Ren's face.  "Where did you learn to do that?  Part of your mystical training?"  
  
Hux had meant it as a stab, but to his surprise, Ren gave him another crooked smile.  "This was the less mystical part of my training."  He turned back to the pile of chips, his smile vanishing and his expression turning more morose as he drug the gloved fingers of one hand through the edge of the messy pile.  "I know how to get credits in a hurry."  
  
"That explains why you waste them so readily on missions."  Hux winced.  There was no need to bring up work-related matters here, and he hadn't intended for the criticism to slip out.  But financial negligence was obscene to those that had grown up with nothing.  
  
Ren stood abruptly, turning away from Hux.  Hux stepped closer again, clamping a hand down on his shoulder before Ren could walk away from the table.  The crowd was beginning to disperse, though he saw the crowd of reptilian gamblers lingering expectantly.  
  
"Use your winnings to buy a round of drinks."  
  
Ren turned to stare at him, then over his shoulder at the bar.  "Can I do that?  Is that okay?"  
  
Hux leaned in closer.  "Unless you want to be attacked as soon as we leave this club and dragged to the Hutts for cheating, I would suggest you do exactly that," he muttered low into Ren's ear.  
  
Ren's brows drew together.  "I wouldn't let them do that."  
  
Hux scowled at him, thinking of Ren's combat record.  He'd never actually seen Ren fight, but reports suggested that what he said was true.  Still, Hux didn't want to bet his life on Ren against the Hutts.  
  
"Put the credits back into the players and the Club."  
  
Ren's expression cleared, and he shrugged.  "Okay.  I don't need them."  
  
Hux grew more irritated as he made a motion with his hand, barking a few words in argot at the bartender, causing the whole club to break out in cheers and clap Hux and Ren on the shoulders.  Hux waited for the celebration to die down before continuing.  
  
"No, you don't need them.  It would never occur to you that that amount could feed a patrol for two weeks."  This time it had been intentional.  It was the money. He couldn't help it.  It set him off.  
  
Ren looked betrayed at the admonishment, then turned away from Hux, angry.  Hux sighed and clenched his eyes shut, letting his irritation go.  He waved his hand as if the dismiss it, then looked around at the drinks being slowly served to everyone by the two club workers.  
  
"Nevermind.  I'm going to the back.  You're welcome to come, or you can stay out here if you wish to see how many credits you can fleece from the patrons tonight.  If you try hard enough, you might wind up nailed to the front of a Hutt palace yet."  
  
Kylo looked absently at the back rooms, seeming to ignore the insult, then turned back to Hux.  "No, I'm ready."  
  
"All right."  Hux scanned the room to see if the group he'd spotted earlier was still around.  They were.  They were particularly fond of human males, and aside from Hux and Ren, there were only two other humans in the club tonight.  He turned back to Ren.  
  
"Do you want to sit and chat for a moment, or do you want to go right away?"  This wasn't a real question, since Ren rarely passed more than five words in conversation.  Hux let his gaze drift down the tightness of the uniform front.  He let his mind wander, conjuring a mental image of Ben Solo masturbating across the room, in a First Order uniform, to his sexual exploits.  Would that ever get old?  Hux thought not.  
  
"We can go now, if you want," Ren answered, his eyes shifting around the room, a gloved hand reaching up to tuck a stray lock of hair behind his ear.  He still looked scared and nervous.  Hux sighed.  
  
"I know what I want.  I'm asking what you want."  Hux put his fingers to the side of Ren's face in an attempt to keep Ren's gaze on Hux.  Ren nervously met Hux's eye.  Hux could almost feel the heat of Ren's palm through their gloves when Ren's hand reached up to pull Hux's from his face.  He took a step back, but maintained eye contact. 

Hux dropped his hand to his side and continued.  "You weren't comfortable last time.  You aren't comfortable now.  So tell me.  Are you really fine, or are you coming because I asked you?  You don't have to do anything, you can go back to the ship if you'd like.  I don't want to put you in another awkward situation, where I assume you want something.  Do you want me to ask when we're in the room, or would you rather ask me, when you're ready?"  
  
Ren swallowed, still looking scared, but his gaze was steady on Hux's.  He had enchanting eyes, dark brown shot through with light that was almost yellow.  "No.  I'm here because I want to be.  Yes.  I'd rather just watch.  I'll tell you if that changes."  
  
"Be sure you do.  I'm unlikely to refuse you anything."  This came out more sentimental than Hux had intended, or maybe he only felt that way because he was still looking at Ren's face.  It was something he often said to his sex partners, anyway. He turned and walked away before the statement could linger awkwardly between them.  
  
He approached three bith in a booth.  Their large black eyes, pale skin, and split dome-like craniums all looked identical to Hux.  All three were wearing smaller versions of the black First Order uniform on their tiny bodies, which had made Hux nearly laugh aloud when he spotted them earlier.  The dark uniforms contrasted sharply against their smooth, pale pink-white skin.  Hux stopped at the edge of the table and leaned in.  "Are you three seeking company tonight?"  
  
One of the bith nodded, making a vibrating noise.  They didn't have a language in common, but Hux had learned the basics of communicating with them, among other things, some time ago.  
  
They were all three on one side of the booth.  He slid into the other, and gestured to the bar to bring their drinks next.  He idly wondered if these drinks would be part of the round Ren was buying, or would be on his own tab, or Ren's.  He abruptly decided to make Ren pay for the whole trip.  This was unusually petty of Hux, but Kylo Ren often put him in a petty frame of mind, something he was apparently unable to divorce from the current situation.  Money made him so angry.  He'd speak to Urathine later about the expenses.  
  
Ren slid into the booth beside him, looking uncomfortable.  Not looking at him, Hux continued speaking in Imperial-accented Basic to the bith.  
  
"We're looking for company tonight, too.  I am."  He tapped his chest with his palms.  "He's going to watch."  Hux half-turned to Ren, lifting his hand and squeezing Ren's shoulder once.  He made a pushing gesture against Ren's chest, then pointed to the corner behind them, and turned back to the Bith.  "Is that an acceptable arrangement?"  
  
The bith turned to look at one another, making the vibrating noises amongst themselves, before the one in the middle turned back to Hux and gave an exaggerated nod, making the vibrating affirmative noise again.  
  
Hux could feel Ren lean into his side.  "Hux," he whispered sharply in his ear.  Hux turned to raise a quizzical eyebrow at Ren, who looked a little queasy.  "You can't be serious."  
  
Hux turned back to the bith.  "My companion doesn't think you'd be interested in us, since we're humans dressed as First Order officers.  He's new."  
  
The bith all three made chiming noises that Hux took as laughter, and they began nodding and making dismissive gestures with their hands, pulling on their own uniform sleeves.  Hux turned back to Ren.  "See, they don't mind."  
  
Ren appeared to be begging Hux with his eyes.  Hux smirked.  "If you really don't want to, we don't have to."  
  
Ren closed his eyes and a pained look crossed his face.  He shook his head, then opened them again.  "No, I'm fine."  
  
"Are you sure?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"All right."  
  
The drinks came out and they consumed them in silence.  Without a common language, there wasn't much to say, though it was far from awkward for Hux.  He often consumed silent drinks with his partners beforehand.  But Ren seem tongue-tied and uncomfortable.    
  
Hux had a moment of regret when he realized he had made so sure that Ren would be comfortable, followed immediately by something tasteless.  He brooded on this, his regret warring with the pure wickedness of what was about to happen.  He had insisted on the encounter, even over Ren's objections, because he was sure Ren would ultimately enjoy it for that reason, too.  It was a way to participate without being touched, and Hux was proud of himself for thinking of it.  
  
When the the bith finished their drinks,  Hux rose, and led the bith and Ren to the back hallway.    
  
  
  
***  
  
  
  
_Hux got more commendations and promotions.  It happened fast.  With the accolades came his own ship and patrol to command.  As a higher ranking officer, he could take leave one or two days a week, but he could only go to Csilla monthly because he was usually too far away.  This nearly put him in the mind of desertion again until Esa compromised with him, finding locations throughout the galaxy so that Hux could see her every two standard weeks.  Esa neatly avoided Hux's questions about her own job and travel arrangements while Hux was telling her about his own patrol routes._  
  
_Esa opened Clubs at all of their agreed-upon locations.  Hux went to them and let himself go, losing himself in Esa and their other partners, but mostly Esa.  Even with his own ship, his own command, and a now very promising career ahead of him, he would still leave it all to tend the bars at the Clubs for Esa.  She wouldn't let him.  She told him any semi-sentient space jockey could do that, but it took a special kind of person to slowly conquer the galaxy._  
  
_The videos continued, too.  He had laughed when she told him her idea for Major Fuxx.  He made the rank insignia look fake since everything else about it would be real, and he enjoyed himself.  He began to see humans at the clubs dressed as him, and that made him laugh, too.  Everything about the clubs and the videos was a pleasant thrill.  It was all the better for being completely removed from the person he had been raised to be and the culture he lived in.  At work, it was better not to form personal attachments and do his job as ruthlessly and anonymously as possible.  It was simple, when he could have everything else he wanted while on leave._  
  
_Then, one day, Esa didn't show up at the Club on Bestine._  
  
_She had never been absent before.  Hux waited a full two cycles at the Club, growing increasingly worried, and returned to his ship without sleeping._  
  
_He invented a reason to stay in the region, then went back the next week and waited for her again.  Another full two cycles at the Club, sitting silently and rejecting all attempts at conversation this time.  It made him think of those times at the old bar on Csilla, before he'd met her.  He had no way to contact her, had never been able to convince her to give him a comm frequency, so they wouldn't have to wait for Hux's leave._  
  
It's that handsome head of hair I want to see, sunshine.  I still don't have you up to socializing standards yet. _And she'd wink one of her violet eyes, because she knew that was something humans did.  Except she couldn't, quite, and it was more of a slow blink that took Hux a long time to parse._  
  
_He went back again, and questioned the workers.  No, they hadn't seen her since the last time Hux had.  They didn't know where to find her outside the Clubs._  
  
_Hux was relentless.  He tracked the owners of the club, traced her money, found a few people that outlined her work as a successful bounty hunter and extortion artist._  
  
_He tracked her by her reputation, then.  He found her trade name (for Hux, Esa would always be her real name), and began asking for her._  
  
_He found her in a nikto pleasure palace after two standard months of chasing her ghost through the galaxy.  He invented a slight from the cartel, pulled Esa out, and had his soldiers kill every living being in the palace.  And then he burned it to the ground._  
  
_Esa's luck and charm had finally run out when she slighted the nikto cartel leader.  He had captured her and bound her as a slave.  When she had not been subservient enough, he had amputated one of her lekku._  
  
_Twi'lek lekku contain the brain and nervous systems of the twi'lek.  He was surprised Esa had lived through it.  She was half-paralyzed, and was no longer herself when he found her._  
  
_Citing administrative duties planetside that he would need discretion for, Hux had done the one and only act of subterfuge and disobedience in his First Order career.  He had flown a shuttle off-world, taking Esa with him to Csilla._

  
  
***

  
  
He did want to see how Ren would react to the bith, but he would have asked for their company even if Ren wasn't here.  There was something truly awful about getting taken by a group of bith, and he didn't think he'd have the pleasure again.  
  
The First Order had invaded the planet Bith five months ago.  The native population had been unceremoniously wiped out when they had refused to negotiate for their fertile farm lands and food production.  These bith must have been off-world when the invasion happened.  Neither Hux nor Kylo Ren had been involved in the bith negotiations and subsequent genocide, but they both would have done it, if they had been ordered to.  
  
Hux was shocked the bith were here.  Would Hux want to have sex with something dressed up as the thing that murdered his family?  He rolled his eyes when he realized the answer was yes, if they were in one of these places.  He wasn't one to judge.  And perhaps these bith had been exiles, on bad terms with their culture and government.  There were any number of reasons for it.  
  
He pushed through the door and stood at the foot of the bed as the three bith and Ren came in.  The bith were small, the top of their heads not rising above the center of Hux's chest.  He nodded over to the corner, then pointed to the bed.  
  
"He's going to stand over there, and we'll be on the bed.  Is that all right?"  
  
He looked to Ren, who nodded, and the bith made their noises of assent.    
  
"Do you want the uniform on," he ran his hand down the front of his buttons, "or off?"  he pointed at the floor.  
  
The bith conferred for a moment, and they all three ran their hands down the front of their own small First Order uniforms.  Hux nodded in agreement, and sat down on the edge of the bed.  
  
Bith had three genders, and only ever appeared in sets of three.  He had no idea what they did together, or how their biology worked, aside from the fact that you needed three bith to make another bith, and this seemed to be how they formed family units.    
  
He had never pleasured a bith sexually, nor had he seen anything else do it.  Bith were come-eaters, human and otherwise.  Being pleasured by experienced bith was some of the best sex he'd ever had, but regardless of their experience level, they were always... relentless.  
  
Experienced bith groups had specific ways they liked to take other species, so he sat on the bed and waited for direction.  One crawled up next to him and grabbed his shoulder, another grabbed his legs, and the third knelt on the floor next to the bed.  They maneuvered Hux so that he was lying on his back with his ass hanging over the side of the bed and his thighs resting on the shoulders of the kneeling bith.  He was already growing aroused from having all three handle him so gently, and he could feel his cock twitch as he glanced over at Ren, who was unbuckling the front of his pants, his face flushing and his eyes steady on Hux.  Hux turned away and looked back at the bith.  
  
One was kneeling next to his hips, and the other was sitting on the bed with Hux's head in its lap.  It had removed the uniform hat and set it to the side.  The one between his legs began to undo his belt as the one with his head in its lap put its long fingers into Hux's mouth.  Hux parted his lips and took the fingers.  Bith skin tasted a citrus-y kind of sour, and he felt the taste run over his tongue and make his mouth fill with saliva.  It ran one digit along his teeth, probing his lips with the other fingers gently.  Hux laved the fingers with his tongue.  
  
The one between his legs opened the front of his pants, and Hux shifted to aid it in pulling them down just enough to expose his cock and ass.  He wasn't wearing underwear, had stopped wearing it into the Clubs years ago.  He would prefer to go without at all times, but he hated the thought of being injured and discovered without in medical.  
  
When the bith between his legs wrapped its fingers around his dick dry, he pulled away from the fingers in his mouth and sat up to look at the kneeling bith and pointed to the box of aids next to the bed.  
  
"I need lube for this."  He normally didn't mind when a partner wanted him dry, but it would be important for this.  Sex with bith normally took a long time, and he would be in too much pain to give them what they needed unless he spoke up now.  
  
The kneeling bith rose and went to the bin, rummaging and coming up with a bottle of lube, looking over at Hux.  Hux nodded and relaxed back into the other bith's lap as the bith with the lube knelt again, spreading lube on the fingers of one hand and handing the bottle to the one between Hux's legs.  It lubed up both hands and resumed stroking Hux's stiffening erection.  
  
The bith all had long fingers, and were very skilled when they knew how to use them.  Hux was pleased to find that these bith had experience.  Bith fingers were twice the length of human fingers, and jointed differently - bith fingers could also move side to side at the joints.  The one who was stroking his erection had two fingers wrapped completely around his cock and was slowly moving them up and down, the smooth pads stroking the underside from head to base.  Another finger was over the tip of the head massaging in circles, and the fourth was wrapped firmly around the base.  Hux moaned, which allowed the bith at his head better access to his mouth.  It began probing Hux's tongue, the roof of his mouth, and around his teeth in cheeks.  Not his throat.  Not yet.  It trailed its thumb over his lips, spreading his own saliva on and around his mouth.  
  
The kneeling bith began exploring the crack of Hux's ass, one long finger reaching up between, tentatively, the others spreading.  Hux had cleaned and worked himself open on the ride to the planet, as sometimes nonhumans didn't know to do this.  It was safer to be prepared, and Hux couldn't bring himself to stop a partner mid-coitus, even if he was in a lot of pain.    
  
The bith's finger paused at the rim, swirled for a moment, then pushed in easily.  It began probing inside Hux.  Hux writhed, and moaned aloud again when the bith at his head began to pinch one of his nipples with its free hand.  The one between his legs squeezed his thigh.  
  
Fuck.  These ones knew what they were doing.  He had been stimulated everywhere at once before, many times, but the sensation always felt new to him.  He closed his eyes and let the bith take him.  
  
As his dick got harder under their ministrations, he felt the bith searching for the right spot inside and adding a second finger.  He closed his eyes and squirmed slightly against the pressure, then squirmed harder when he felt the bith's two fingers press outward in an uncanny sensation of being full, but not quite.  He turned his head in the bith's lap and pulled his mouth away from its fingers.   He began whispering slightly under his breath.    
  
[Find it quick. I'm not patient, and neither are you.]  
  
Talking during sex was a bad habit he had never been able to break.  He did it without thinking.  It almost always came out in the mostly impenetrable Arkanis argot that he had spoken with his mother.  Most of his partners didn't understand what he was saying, but it didn't matter.  
  
His whispering was a cue for the bith at his head to add two more fingers to his mouth, and Hux sucked them and skimmed his teeth lightly against its skin as the bith pumped slowly in and out.  The bith stroking his erection began to go faster, gripping just a bit too hard for comfort.  It probed the head of his dick with a blunt fingertip as it used its other fingers to jerk him, and the sensation was driving Hux mad.  He loved the ones that could manipulate him like that. 

Hux heard one make a verbal signal, and he opened his eyes as the one at his head shoved its fingers all the way down his throat, the one in his ass shoved its fingers all the way up and in, and the one at its dick jerked tight, hard and quickly, and bent its small mouth down to the head of Hux's straining, overtaxed erection.  The shock of being taken roughly at all three places at once brought Hux to orgasm.  Hux's yell was muffled, and he gagged on the fingers in his mouth and tried to control his gorge as it rose up his throat while he came into the mouth of the waiting bith.  Their mouths weren't large enough to perform oral sex on humans, and they had no lips, so it leaned all the way in and pushed itself against the head of his dick, cleaning any that leaked around its mouth with its delicate tongue.  Tears ran from the corners of his eyes from the force of the orgasm, and the bith at his head bent down to lap them from his cheeks.  His hands fisted into the neat, clean bedsheets as he rode out the orgasm and felt six hands against what little was exposed of his over-sensitive skin.  
  
As the tremors shook his body and he spilled as much as he was able, his gaze found Ren.  Ren was stroking quickly, and Hux watched Ren come onto the floor, face tight, eyes closed.  As he watched, he felt the bith cleaning his own dick to get every last drop of come.  
  
Hux closed his eyes and shuddered as the bith at his head withdrew the fingers from his throat.  He felt the bith withdrawing its fingers from his ass as well.  He gasped for breath, counted to sixty, and opened his eyes again.  
  
"Okay."  
  
With that signal, the bith switched positions.  The one that had just swallowed his come came up to his head, the one at his ass went to his dick and put his legs over its shoulders, and the one that had been working his throat with its fingers knelt on the floor next to his hip.  
  
Hux looked at all the bith, then at Ren.  He would need Ren for this, sooner or later, but he tried to hold back as long as possible.  He pointedly looked at the bith positioned at his hip.  The bith at his hip and between his legs were passing the bottle of lubricant between them.  They were using too much, but that was better than too little.  It would help.  The one at his head was running its greasy hands through his hair, making smears on his forehead where it smoothed it back from his brow.  He glanced at it and smiled slightly.  
  
"Okay."  
  
The one at his head gripped the sides of his face, lacing its fingers around his chin.  The one between his legs wrapped its fingers around his flaccid, still-sensitive dick.  The one at his hip, as he had been hoping, plunged in and immediately found his prostate.  
  
When Hux closed his eyes and moaned, feeling too hot in his uniform and over-stimulated and still sensitive, his dick twitched and began to grow hard again.  He was pleased that the prostate stimulation was enough.  Sometimes it was difficult to perform the way the bith needed. 

The bith at his head shifted its grip to slide its thumbs along his jaw and its fingers into his hair.  It began massaging his scalp gently, its greasy fingers sliding easily through his hair.  The one between his legs brought its fingers up and began kneading his balls, which tightened away from his touch, then slowly relaxed as it rolled its fingers over them.  Another finger found his perineum and pressed down.  Hux closed his eyes.  Small twitches were wracking his body, and his dick hurt, it hurt but it was getting harder and the pain was exquisite, and these bith knew what they were doing.  He was going to come again, with all of them touching him everywhere at once and wanting his pleasure so badly.  
  
As he tightened around the fingers inside of him, they relaxed and pulled out.  Hux chased them back down, but his hips were held firmly in place with a hand.  Fingers weren't quite as good as a solid appendage for Hux, but the bith's were long, and it knew to flex them outward, filling and stretching Hux inside in a way that few things could.  He could feel his pulse throbbing as he tried to buck his hips forward in anticipation for what was coming next.  
  
[Do it.  It hurts, make it more painful, don't make me wait for it.]  
  
He felt two of the fingers flex and spread and press inside as the third gently massaged his prostate.  Hux moaned and muttered curses under his breath, and he felt his cock throbbing, fully hard, in the hand of the other bith, the third pressing its fingers gently into his scalp.  Hux began to breathe heavily, incredibly turned on.  He arched his back and urged the bith on in whispers.    
  
This feeling - it had been years of this, years of finding what the galaxy has to offer, and it was new every time, and so good, it was always so good, for Hux and for his partners, they always gave something to each other.  He clenched his eyes shut briefly, hating himself for his sentimentality, his weakness, but this feeling was the one thing he craved, more than anything in the whole galaxy, and it felt perfect every single time.  
  
A tear ran from Hux's eye as he came painfully, the muscles in his abdomen tightening and a whine escaping from his clenched teeth as the pain from his orgasm traced the come out through his erection.  He bucked in the grip of the bith at his head, and it soothed its fingers through his hair and lapped the tears from his face as he dealt with the pain of wringing himself out a second time so soon.    
  
He caught his breath again as the bith between his legs lapped at the head of his dick with its small tongue.  It would have tickled under other circumstances, but it was currently borderline excruciating.  Hux felt sweaty and overheated, felt his heart hammering in his chest.  A feeling of melancholy chased the sentimentality from his mind as he looked at the bith.  
  
[So beautiful.  Perhaps the last of your kind,] he managed softly.  One of the bith cocked its head and shook it, and Hux smiled sadly at it, sitting up, raising his palm and cupping the side of its smooth, clammy face in his hand.    
  
"Nothing.  Give me a minute, all right?"  He looked at the other two bith, who turned to look at one another.  
  
Unexpectedly, the bith between his legs flipped him roughly on his stomach, the one at his head used its hands to pin his shoulders to the bed.  
  
[Fuck!] Hux yelled, taken aback by their roughness, fisting his hands into the blanket and tucking his knees under him, positioning his ass in the air.  The two bith not holding him down each took a leg.  One positioned its head underneath him, its mouth a hairsbreadth from his painful, flaccid penis.  The other took him roughly with its fingers in his ass.  
  
It hurt, it hurt.  It pushed the fingers all the way in, again and again and again, and Hux cried out into the sheets.  He couldn't see Ren, and he was counting on watching Ren watch him for the third round.  He'll have to picture Ren, which is nearly as good, since Ren is certainly there, enjoying himself.  
  
Shudders wracked his body, and his stomach and thigh muscles cramped painfully as he felt himself getting hard again.  
  
He liked being taken roughly just as much as gently, and had yet to stop a partner from performing on him, which was both stupid and gratifying.  
  
At the bar on Csilla, the chiss had been among his first partners.  The chiss were one of the most xenophobic races in the galaxy, and believed absolutely in their own physical and intellectual superiority.  Thus, the ones that slunk into the bar to take humans were full of self-loathing that they took out on their partners.  Some chiss played a game where they let Hux take them, and then beat him up and took him in return.  Hux often thought about that, the further he'd moved up the hierarchy of the First Order.  As much as he had enjoyed giving himself to all of his partners over the years, most came from cultures that hated him.  His hated them back, and the First Order happened to be stronger.  
  
Every being in the galaxy could give and take joy from one another.  So too every being in the galaxy believed themselves superior to the rest.  At least on some level.  There would be war stretching forward to the end of time.  To believe otherwise was foolish.  
  
[Harder, I won't come unless you go harder, Fucking FUCK, Ren, enjoy this fucking spectacle, the last of a dead race pleasuring a general of the First Order with the strongest Force user in the galaxy masturbating in the fucking corner and I told you three to do it HARDER-]  
  
His ass hurt, his dick hurt, his muscles hurt, and he came screaming into the mouth of the third bith, possibly one of the last members of a species that Hux had wiped out. It lapped delicately with its small mouth and small tongue at the tip of his dick, and Hux sighed in relief to give it the pleasure.  
  
It set him gently on the mattress, and Hux stared weakly at the bith closest to him.  He took its hand and rubbed its long fingers against his cheek.  It smoothed his hair, wiped his face, and set his hat crookedly back on his head.  The others gently pulled his pants back up and fastened them, redoing his belt.  They had all left their uniforms on and stayed completely dressed throughout, which seemed absurd to Hux, after all that.  His was still clean and neat.  They had somehow managed to muss nothing but his hair.  
  
He glanced over at Ren under the skewed brim of his hat.  He was fastening up his own pants.  
  
"I couldn't see you at the end.  Did you enjoy yourself?"  
  
Ren looked at him, then darted a quick look at the bith, then down at the floor.  "Yes.  I didn't expect them all to... to do that."  
  
Hux closed his eyes and quirked the side of his mouth, more physically wrung out from this session than others he could have chosen.  The bith each came and took his hand, pressing it to their throats in a sign of respect.  Hux did the same with each of their hands, had nearly forgotten the ritual.  
  
[Live,] he told them, closing his eyes as he heard them shuffle out of the room.  
  
  
  
***  
  
  
  
_She had lucid moments, but could no longer speak or annunciate.  Hux had tried to get her to type out a comm.  She had enough occasional clarity to do so.  But Hux refused to believe she was in her right mind when he saw what she had typed.  When Hux had asked again and again if that's what she wanted, she had given him the same message every time.  He had been sure by the time they reached the Club.  They had gone straight to the new back rooms._  
  
_There, he had made one last video with her.  He felt like he was violating her.  He wasn't sure if she was enjoying it, or was mentally present for the activity.  Still, he had done it, as she had asked._  
  
_Afterwards, she looked more herself, which was a relief.  She had smiled at him, her face twitching.  Her eyes looked pained._  
  
_"Huu-" she tried to push out._  
  
_"Esa.  Don't call me that.  It means you want something."_  
  
_"I-" she tried, and closed her eyes.  She began to make a series of unintelligible sounds.  Saliva ran from the corner of her mouth.  Her saliva had always tasted as sweet as her sweat.  Kissing her that first time was probably when Hux had first fallen in love with her.  Hux licked the saliva from her lips.  She reached up and wiped at his eyes, which were similarly affected._  
  
_"I know you want something.  I didn't forget."_  
  
Don't go with me _, her comms had all said._  
  
_"I wish you had let me defect, all those years ago."  He closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against hers.  They were both kneeling on the bed.  One hand was on her waist, the other was absently stroking her remaining lekku.  "I wouldn't have let this happen."_  
  
_"No," she still managed, clearly.  Hux made a noise that wasn't quite laughter.  She wiped at his eyes again with her good hand.  He kept them closed.  He felt her body spasming against his.  Another symptom of what had happened to her.  He gripped her tightly in his arms until she stilled again.  When she did, she began to make sing-song noises._  
  
_Hux pulled back and looked at her face.  Her violet eyes were still set into her small round, green face, off balance now that her lekku was gone, sagging down on that side.  He ran his hand over it._  
  
_Another round of convulsions took her, more violent.  Hux held her through it, and she lost consciousness this time.  He dressed and carried out her final wishes, which she'd typed over and over again until he'd accepted it._  
  
Can't live like this.  
  
Space me. Hux.  
  
Make vid with me first.  Remember.  Don't go with me.  
  
Live.  
  
_So he did.  He had watched as her body was sucked out of the airlock of his shuttle, just as she wanted.  She hadn't regained consciousness after her last seizure, and that had made it easier.  He wasn't sure he would have been able to do it if she had._  
  
_He stayed away from the Clubs for a year.  His career stalled.  He went back to hating his job.  He felt dead inside, knowing that Esa was no longer doing her mystery work in the galaxy._  
  
_A standard year after her death, he had gone back to the club on Bestine.  Just to drink.  He had worn his mask.  There were more species there than ever, more bad First Order imitation uniforms.  He thought of Major Fuxx for the first time since Esa's death, and it made him laugh._  
  
_As he was getting drunk, someone approached him.  He said yes._  
  
_And he shared what he and Esa had together with his partner._  
  
_She was still alive, that way._

  
  
***

  
  
Several silent minutes after the bith departed, he shoved the cap off his head, opened his eyes, and looked at Ren.  Unsurprisingly, Ren was standing and staring awkwardly from the other side of the room.  
  
Hux lifted an arm and gestured to the vacant side of the bed.  "Take a seat, Ren.  I'm going to be a minute."  He closed his eyes again and felt Ren's weight tip the mattress after a moment.  Hux worked through the muddy haze of his thoughts, trying to figure out if there was anything they could, or should, talk about.  But there was really just the one thing, running through his mind, over and over again.  
  
"How many times did you get yourself off to that?"  
  
"Two."  
  
"I beat you, then."  Hux cracked one eye and gave Ren his best disapproving glare, under the circumstances.  "Why not three?"  
  
"I, uh.  Couldn't.  Because the third time was too quick, and I was still.  Finishing.  From the second time.  So."  
  
Hux closed his eye again.  "Did the idea of those bith pleasuring a real First Order officer, one of the heads of the organization, make it better or worse?"  
  
Ren was silent.  
  
"I won't think less of you for either.  I told you before, I won't judge you here."  
  
Ren was silent long enough that Hux thought he might not respond.  Then he felt Ren's weight shift again, and he opened both eyes to stare at Ren's back, his head down between his hands.  
  
"Better.  It made it better.  It was awful."  
  
Hux sighed.  "Then I did read you correctly."  
  
When Ren didn't respond, Hux rolled onto his side and propped himself up on an elbow.  "I know you said you didn't want to participate, but those bith would have been perfect for you.  They likely would have been pleased with a quick transaction, but it's hard to tell with them.  You could have had them, and I could have had something else."  Hux likely would have been more interested in an xeno orgy of seven (he was thinking of the rodians) with Ben Solo if he hadn't just been brought to orgasm three times in quick succession.  He shelved that fantasy for later perusal.  
  
Ren turned back around, leaning on one arm to look at Hux.  "You didn't do anything for them."  
  
Hux shrugged his free shoulder.  "They've never asked it of me.  As far as I know, they don't ask it of anything.  They just love eating body fluids from other species."  
  
Ren looked down.  "Did we take advantage of them?"  
  
Hux gave him another half smile.  "They're here, aren't they?  Wearing well-made custom uniforms of their own.  Judging by the volume of it, the patrons of this establishment presumably get off to the same holoporn that you do, when they aren't here.  They knew what they were getting."  
  
At the mention of the holoporn, Ren turned red, and glanced away quickly.  
  
Hux reached across the bed to turn his face back.  "Stop being embarrassed of what you like."  
  
And he decided to take his own advice, by sitting up and kissing Ren.  He almost never kissed his lovers, because the kisses were never as sugary sweet as the ones he remembered best.  But this time he wanted it anyway.  Because he was Ben Solo, from so long ago, sitting here in a uniform that looked incredible on him, and the thought of him watching from across the room in that uniform, his brown eyes focused on Hux being violently taken by a nonhuman and bringing himself to orgasm at the sight was absurd and very real at the same time.  That the galaxy had somehow delivered his childhood crush into his lap with the same heartbreaking good looks and exactly the same bizarre fetish, modified to include Hux, was nothing short of remarkable.  Certainly, if he was going to kiss someone for any reason, that would be it.  
  
Ren wasn't a good kisser, and Hux had to coax his lips apart and only did a few light passes with his tongue before breaking it.  He smirked briefly when he saw that Ren was bright red, and had closed his eyes.  
  
Ren opened them slowly, and regarded Hux with a wary look.  "What was that for?"  
  
Hux shrugged, lying back and closing his eyes.  "I suppose it's because I get sentimental after sex.  And here you were."  
  
They were both silent for a time.  Hux began drifting off into sleep, when Ren interrupted him.  
  
"Can I ask you something?"  
  
"Yes," Hux replied, not bothering to keep the fatigue from his voice.  
  
"Can we... have sex again?"  
  
Hux cracked an eye.  "Do you think I came here to have sex with a human?"  
  
Hux almost laughed again when he saw Ben's innocent face fall in disappointment.  He didn't let himself laugh, but he did put Kylo Ren out of his misery.  
  
"I'm getting old, Ren.  I'm going to need more time, after what just happened.  And you remember how... singular it was last time."  
  
Ren stood and turned away, hiding his facial expression from Hux.  "You said that, yes.  That's fine.  I'll just.  Wait.  Until you're rested."  He glanced at the door to the small restroom, which was only large enough for a shower, toilet, and sink.  Hux gave him another half-smile, and closed his eyes again.  
  
"Yes.  Give me a bit, and we can if you want.  Do you want someone else in here with us?"  
  
Ren paused.  "Not at first, no.  Unless you need it."  
  
"No."  
  
Hux was almost asleep before Ren interrupted again.  
  
"Can I ask you something else right now?"  
  
Hux creased his brow in irritation.  "One more question."  
  
Ren's pause was long enough that Hux almost considered snapping at him to ask or let him sleep.  
  
"Does it feel good to have something up your ass?"  
  
Hux's eyes flew open.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Be Pure! Be Vigilant! Behave!" was the motto of the xenophobic Terran Empire in the comic Nemesis the Warlock. Seemed like something they'd have on Csilla.
> 
> And you guys are still the best. I was so touched by all the positive messages I received, and it made me happy to hear how much everyone was enjoying the fic. And you can still message me here or on Tumblr - [@vadianna](http://vadianna.tumblr.com).


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